The federal government is a very wasteful entity. In this article, we take a look at the top areas the government wastes your taxes. Get ready to be angry.

The federal government taxes in roughly $2.3 trillion a year in tax revenues. It spends roughly $3.8 trillion, which means there is an annual deficit of $1.5 trillion or so. This, of course, means the national debt is every rising and recently blew through the $14.2 trillion level. It’s a threat to our very financial health as a country. 

From the bridge to nowhere to millions spent on bizarre studies, the federal government has a long and hardy history of wasting our money. As outrageous as many of the programs are, the real waste usually comes from inefficiency and scams as President Obama has noted. It is estimated the total waste each year is about $120 billion or more than four times the budget of NASA. Let’s take a look at the top wastes. 

You just had to know it was going to start with medical care. It is believed that $56 billion of the annual waste is in the areas of Medicare and Medicaid. The breakdown is roughly $34 billion for Medicare and Medicaid. Most of the waste comes in the form of fraud and scams run to bilk the programs. 

The next area is unemployment compensation. This used to be a minor problem area, but the Great Recession changed that. The problem is people who are ineligible are claiming benefits or those eligible continue to claim them after going back to work. The total waste is estimated at roughly $20 billion.

The final big area where waste occurs is in social security income payments. The total is in the $5 to $10 billion range each year. The problem is beneficiaries become ineligible because of changes to their lifestyles such as moving in with the family. 

What about the rest of the waste? Well, it comes in small line item areas. The stories you hear of prisoners claiming social security or getting tax refunds are outrageous, but they don’t really total that much overall. Still, every bit counts as we all know when we write that check to Uncle Sam each year or watch the money deduct from our paychecks.