How Much Does the U.S. Government Waste Yearly? $125 Billion

Each year, the federal government squanders an astonishing amount of your tax dollars on payments that are just plain wrong, including Social Security checks to the dead or incarcerated, free lunches to schoolchildren who don't qualify and unemployment benefits to the employed. In 2010, improper payments in federal programs totaled $125 billion. That's more than six times the total budget for NASA. "It absolutely is one of the big costs'' to the nation's taxpayers, said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. "The most egregious [example] is paying out these fraudulent claims.''