A rare moment of transparency on MSNBC unfolded Tuesday when a segment on Jose Diaz-Balart Reports acknowledged that the Social Security Administration (SSA) had issued nearly $72 billion in improper payments over an eight-year period.

The revelation, stemming from an inspector general audit, appeared to catch Diaz-Balart off guard.

The discussion followed a major finding by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team, which recently uncovered significant irregularities in the SSA database.

Elon Musk Called This Financial News 'Terrifying'

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According to the records, over 25 million Americans are still listed as living despite being 100 years or older, with some allegedly exceeding the age of the U.S. Constitution.

Musk himself reacted to the data with sarcasm, posting on X, “According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the ‘death’ field set to FALSE. Maybe Twilight is real, and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.”

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During the MSNBC segment, a network reporter referenced a 2024 inspector general audit detailing the scope of SSA’s financial mismanagement.

The report, released in August 2024, found that between fiscal years 2015 and 2022, the SSA had issued $72 billion in improper payments, with $23 billion still unrecovered.

“There was an inspector general audit last year,” the reporter stated as the numbers appeared on screen.

“That showed over an eight-year period that the Social Security Administration made almost $72 billion in improper payments, a little less than 1% of payments in that period.”

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Despite the staggering total, the reporter attempted to downplay the issue, claiming that most of the improper payments were due to overpayments rather than fraud or payments to deceased individuals.

“Now, the report also says most of these improper payments were overpayments, not payments to deceased people or people who didn’t qualify to receive these payments,” the reporter continued.

“At the same time, Jose, this effort by DOGE is to go through this agency like every other and try to weed out waste and fraud.”

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Diaz-Balart, seemingly taken aback by the numbers, responded with astonishment.

“Yeah, and also $72 BILLION! And that’s without a comprehensive search,” he exclaimed. “That’s significant.”

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The reaction stood in contrast to MSNBC’s usual coverage, which rarely highlights government waste or inefficiencies.

The acknowledgment of such a significant financial mismanagement issue suggests that the scale of the problem may be too large to ignore.

Musk’s DOGE team has already uncovered additional financial irregularities, including $100 billion in improper Medicare and Medicaid payments.

The latest findings suggest that the SSA may be sitting on an even larger pool of wasteful spending, with the potential for more revelations as investigations continue.

While the full extent of financial mismanagement at the SSA remains unknown, Musk’s team has signaled that further audits and transparency efforts could bring more of these systemic problems to light.

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