So far, DOGE has uncovered seemingly-fraudulent unemployment benefits, 80% of which have been centered in three states. Bet you can guess what those states might be.

Yes, they are New York and California – and I’ll get to the third in a moment. One would expect California, however, just on the basis of population alone because it’s the most populous state in the US. New York is not number two in population, however; that’s Texas, and number three is Florida. Then comes New York.

What’s the third state in the fraud sweepstakes? Why, Massachusetts of course (those who live in New England probably know why I wrote “of course”). And yet Massachusetts is only number sixteen on the population list.

What do these three states also have in common? This:

Fox News points out that California, New York, and Massachusetts are all governed entirely by Democrats, holding what’s known as a “Democratic trifecta” — control of the state legislature and governor’s office. They also hold a “Democratic triplex,” meaning Democrats occupy the top three statewide executive positions: governor, attorney general, and secretary of state.

Fancy that.

Much more at the link if you want some of the details.

It all makes me wonder how the left criticizes this, because criticize it they do. One method of which you are almost certainly already aware is to say that Musk is an (unelected!) lying liar who lies and whose motive is to steal. Another is to simply ignore the topic. Still another is to say that the amount of fraud is really peanuts in the great scheme of things.

But in terms of this particular story about unemployment benefits fraud, we have this extremely odd explanation from the NY Times. I had some trouble reading the whole thing because of the firewall, and there may have been some that I missed although I think I got it all.

The headline and subtitle of the piece – probably the only part most people will read, anyway – serve to ostensibly debunk DOGE’s findings, or at least partially debunk them: “Musk’s Latest Fraud Finding Isn’t What It Seems: His team found cases of seemingly fake people receiving unemployment benefits. But that fake data exists for a reason.” For the headline readers, that’s probably enough to make them decide it’s just nasty old Elon lying again, nothing to see here. But reading the piece gives you this sort of thing:

“Your tax dollars were going to pay fraudulent unemployment claims for fake people born in the future!” Mr. Musk posted on X, his social media platform. “This is so crazy that I had to read it several times before it sank in.” …

These were, indeed, probably fake people — but in a different way than Mr. Musk seemed to realize. It was also most likely a case of his team discovering fraud that had already been discovered by someone else.

What? So there was fraud but Musk wasn’t the first to discover it? Do the American people really care about that aspect – and why did the early fraud-detectors seemingly do nothing to end it?

More:

The issue dates to early in the pandemic when millions of Americans surged onto state unemployment rolls in an unprecedented expansion of the safety net. The emergency aid program enacted during President Trump’s first term was also susceptible to fraud. As many as 15 percent of unemployment claims were fraudulent, often using stolen identities.

Yes, I think we already knew that. I recall reading at the time that there were not enough safeguards against fraud in this program that was rushed though. My assumption was that there would be plenty of fraud, and I even seem to recall reading that there indeed was fraud.

More:

To preserve records of that fraud and protect victims of the identity theft, the U.S. Labor Department encouraged state agencies that administer unemployment benefits to create “pseudo claim” records — in effect, to tie real cases of fraud in their data to make-believe people. The implausibility of the records was the point. Agencies were seeking a way to keep track of fraud claims while detaching them from the identities of innocent people who might one day apply for unemployment benefits themselves.

If I understand that, then these claims were fraudulent and the fake birth dates were “flags” for the fraudulent claims. So it’s not as though the agencies didn’t notice that a child or a person who was 150 years old was making a claim that was obviously false. It’s that the fake birthdates were assigned to mark the probably fraudulent claims – claims which were paid. Nor was this money ever recovered, as far as I can tell.

More:

The cases they cite probably do refer to real instances of people fraudulently receiving benefits, said current and former unemployment officials with the Labor Department and state work force agencies. But it is not the case, those officials said, that a hapless government was duped into doling out benefits to people it didn’t realize weren’t even born yet.

It seems that what the piece in the Times is saying is that the fraud was very real but that the government wasn’t as stupid as it seems from the evidence of the fake birthdates – that those were intentional. But what most people care about is that there was and is fraud, and that the government paid fraudulent claims and that these “people” are still on the rolls. The fact that previous administrations may have known this (but did nothing about it) isn’t really the point. And the fact that most of this occurred in those three states remains informative.

Of course, this isn’t just about fraudulent unemployment benefits. We also have this sort of thing:

DOGE also reported this week that since 2023, the U.S. Border Patrol (under the Biden administration) has paroled over 6,300 individuals flagged on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist or with criminal records into the country with “minimal screening.” Though their paroles have now been revoked, all received Social Security numbers and could access federal benefits. Among them:

– 905 received Medicaid, including 4 on the terrorist watchlist ($276K paid out)
– 41 collected Unemployment Insurance ($42K total)
– 22 received federal student loans ($280K)
– 409 got tax refunds in 2024 ($751K)
– An undisclosed number received SNAP (food stamps)

Under the Biden administration, it was routine for Border Patrol to admit aliens into the United States with no legal status and minimal screening

Perhaps all of this is part of the reason for the fact that the GOP’s reputation has risen among working class voters:

According to a post-tariff Quinnipiac poll, Democrats and Republicans are now tied at 33% on the question of which party “cares more for the needs of people like you”—a dramatic shift after more than three decades of Democratic dominance on the issue. Enten added context to just how historic these numbers are, “Back in 2017, before the midterms, Democrats led by 13 points. In 2005, it was a 23-point lead. Even in 1994—a big year for Republicans—Democrats led by 19,” Enten noted. “Now? A tie. The Democrats, long seen as the party of the people? No more.”