This, from Newsweek!!

from
https://www.newsweek.com/mainstream-media-shocked-again-inevitablethis-time-government-waste-opinion-1693558

Mainstream Media Shocked Again by the Inevitable—This Time Government
Waste | Opinion
JONATHAN BRONITSKY , CO-FOUNDER, ATHOS
ON 4/1/22 AT 6:00 AM EDT
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While watching NBC's coverage of the 2022 WGC-Dell Match Play, I was
jolted out of my weekend serenity by a preview for the relaunch of a
long-running NBC Nightly News series, The Fleecing of America. And what
topic would the peacock network select for its "investigative"
homecoming? The nearly $5 trillion in pandemic assistance provided by
the federal government—specifically, the Paycheck Protection Program,
better known as PPP. "But now investigators say hundreds of billions
have been lost to fraud," announced a stern Lester Holt. Then, images
flashed across the screen of a massive mansion and exotic supercars.

My reaction was virtually the same as that of the New York Post's
editorial board to The New York Times' decision to confirm—after 17
months—that Hunter Biden's emails were "real": "you have got to be
sh*tting us." (Interestingly enough, speaking of the Times, the
illustration at the beginning of the Gray Lady's March 11 interactive,
"Where $5 Trillion in Pandemic Stimulus Money Went," does not even take
fraud into account.)

Why exactly is this irritating to the bone? First, NBC News is the very
same outlet that––along with other left-wing boosters––just about a year
ago hailed Congress' passage of COVID relief as Biden's "first
legislative victory" since taking office while, naturally, blasting
conservative critics in the same breath. And second—well, gee, who among
us could have possibly anticipated the government mismanaging trillions
of dollars?

Yes, the issue at hand is wonkier than Hunter Biden's emails, but the
mainstream media's handling of it is just as illustrative of the sheer
power of our country's elite institutions to fabricate and disseminate
narratives, preemptively bury whoppers and, if necessary, retcon
undesirable accounts.

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In both instances, with the Hunter Biden emails and COVID relief, more
than one year has passed, but there has been zero authentic remorse
whatsoever for what can only be deemed the deliberate misleading of the
American public. Further, both absurdly belated reactions are little
more than kabuki theater––just enough concern to still be considered
more human than a rock, but not enough to offer either a practical
prescription for reform or hope that things will be different next time
around.

A while back, before the second round of PPP loans opened to borrowers
at the beginning of 2021, I was taking in the gaudy sights of the
International Jewelers Exchange in Aventura, just north of Miami. "So
what's popular these days?" I asked an Armani Exchange-clad guy in his
mid-20s working his family's stand, which was well stocked with luxury
watches. Without even looking up from his iPhone, he smacked out while
chewing a wad of gum, "Everything."

Members of the public look up at the US Capitol Rotunda on March 28,
2022 in Washington, DC, on the first day that members of the public are
able to tour the US Capitol since tours were halted in 2020 due to the
coronavirus pandemic.
JIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

"Any good deals?" I pressed. Putting down his iPhone, he stared at me
with utter disbelief. "Are you kidding? This is the best business we've
done in years."

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"How's that possible?" I asked. This was, after all, at the height of
the pandemic and amidst record-high unemployment. The guy simply
responded: "Dude, PPP." He stopped there. Apparently, PPP had become
such a common form of currency that he didn't think it needed to be
further explained.

In short, all you had to do was poke around your local neighborhood to
discover that Big Brother's allegedly good intentions had turned bad.

Maybe we should sarcastically celebrate the fact that at least some
portion—even if only the tiniest bit—of COVID relief reached its
intended beneficiaries. The profligacy of government spending is so
blatant and notorious that it hardly needs documenting. As but one
example, it was recently revealed that Los Angeles dedicated $1.2
billion to a new program for fighting homelessness—and the city ended up
spending $837,000 per unit. My wife, while serving at the Department of
Housing and Development during the Trump administration, ardently fought
against doling out any more cash to Los Angeles after it failed to use
millions and millions to retrofit housing units for the disabled.

In far too many instances, a sizable chunk of taxpayer money ends up
going down the drain because of gross mismanagement and/or myriad layers
of middlemen who siphon off their cut along the way. If government were
categorized as a philanthropy and ranked by Charity Navigator, it would
undoubtedly receive a failing score and be shuttered immediately.

The worst part is that our elected officials, on both sides of the
aisle, know perfectly well that this is inevitable. Fraud, waste and
abuse is deemed the inevitable sunk cost of doing "business." For the
Left, these are the means to its own end, which is fostering ever-deeper
government dependence by further forcing the tentacles of state power
into our daily lives through policies with perverse incentive
structures. For Republicans, it's usually a matter of just dishing out
the pork.

To force change, legislators must head off these astronomically large
spending bills at the pass. Meanwhile, concerned citizens must use all
platforms available to forge transparency by closely tracking the words
and actions of our country's elites, and then underscoring duplicity
when it strikes.

Dr. Jonathan Bronitsky is Co-Founder of ATHOS. Twitter: @jbronitsky.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.