Memo to JD Vance: Fighting the war on waste

Vice President JD Vance gives a thumb's up as President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 24, 2026. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images

During President Trump’s State of the Union address, the president said, “I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President JD Vance.” And, he boldly added, “we’re able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight. It’ll go very quickly.”

The pledge to balance the budget by eliminating fraud is an old one. Clinton, Reagan, Obama and Biden all said they would wring out fraud and they never got close to the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. Moreover, the idea that we could remotely come close to balancing the budget by eliminating ...