(Substack)—The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, revealed earlier this year that $4.7 trillion in Treasury Department payments were untraceable.
Previously, Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) codes were not mandatory for these payments, leading to many blank entries and untraceable funds. In February, the Treasury Department and DOGE announced that TAS codes are now required to provide “insight into where the money is actually going.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government this month, “Of the 1.5 billion payments that we send out every year, they are required to have a TAS, a Treasury Account Symbol. We discovered that more than one third of those payments did not have a TAS number.”
Fox News Digital sought reactions from Republican senators regarding the roughly 500,000 untraceable annual payments by the Treasury Department.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, remarked, “I’m not surprised at all, unfortunately,” adding, “They were leaving complete fields undone when they were filling out their financials, so this is a common theme. I’m not surprised.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, urged for a probe into the destination of these payments, stating, “There’s so much waste. There’s so much fraud, There’s so much abuse in our government. I’m glad there was a laser-like focus on it. We ought to make many of those reforms permanent, but there probably ought to be some investigations here about where this money actually went. I mean this is taxpayer money. People work hard.”
Following the discovery, Sens. Roger Marshall and Rick Scott, R-Florida, proposed the Locating Every Disbursement in Government Expenditure Records (LEDGER) Act in March to mandate tracking of all Treasury payments, aiming to enhance transparency in spending taxpayer funds.
Sen. Rick Scott expressed frustration, saying, “When you hear about this story that they didn’t know where the money was going, it makes you mad because this is somebody’s money, this is taxpayers’ money when we have almost $37 trillion in debt, so this makes no sense at all.”
The Congressional Budget estimates that interest payments on the national debt will reach $952 billion in fiscal year 2025, surpassing the $850 billion defense budget by $102 billion.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, highlighted, “We paid out more last year on our debt, $36 trillion in debt, with $950 billion in interest going to bondholders all over the world, including in China. That $950 billion didn’t go to build a bridge or an F-35. We paid more on the interest on debt than we did to fund our military.”
He added, “That is an inflection point that when most countries hit, you look at history, that’s when great powers start to decline. So we have to get those savings.”
At Last, a Company With Integrity in the Gold IRA Industry
For several years, I’ve been vetting out precious metals companies in search of the best. I believe in gold and silver but it’s hard to find integrity in the Gold IRA industry. The vast majority operate with shady tactics and gigantic spreads that take advantage of Americans who simply want to protect their life’s savings.
I’ve found a handful that I like and I’ve worked with some of them. By no means would I “unrecommend” them because, again, I vetted them out and found them to be above the fold. Unfortunately, it isn’t hard to be better than the rest when the rest are so darn awful.
After years of searching, I finally found a company that truly operates with integrity. Augusta Precious Metals has three important attributes that set them far above the competition:
- Non-Commissioned Sales Team: I cannot stress how important and unique this is. With just about every other company in the Gold IRA industry, the sales teams make commission from every account they open. This means they steer their clients toward the gold and silver products with the highest commission. With Augusta Precious Metals, the team is solely focused on putting the best gold and silver for their clients into their IRA. They get paid to serve the best interests of the Gold IRA client, NOT their own commission pay.
- Incredibly Low Fees: Most Americans would be shocked if they knew the spread other Gold IRA companies charge. Augusta charges just 5% versus up to 45% elsewhere.
- No Pressure, No Gimmicks: There’s an understanding among most in the Gold IRA industry that fear and pressure is the way to go. Augusta Precious Metals takes a sober approach when working with clients because they hold integrity in the highest possible regard. This is why they don’t offer gimmicks like “free” or “bonus” silver. It’s also why they do not apply pressure tactics to get quick sales. Their educational and transparent approach to doing business is exceedingly rare in the Gold IRA industry.
They should contact their congresspeople.
Remember the debate about direct Public Financing of Federal elections back in the 70s and 80s? Voters soundly rejected this (and still do!) But the fraud, waste and abuse DOGE has found indicate that elected officials, candidates and their donors just found another way to do this — Government payments with sketchy provenance, documentation and accountability (and *no visibility* til now). These are *designed* to be “untraceable”, favoring multi-layered payments to NGOs or foreign organizations with lax accounting regulations. And unsurprisingly Congress and deep state operatives who created and operate this system talk with righteous outrage about cleaning this up; but no way they are gonna bite the hand that feeds them. Rinse and repeat.