As a candidate for Congress from Mississippi’s 4th District, I am outraged by the rampant fraud, waste, and abuse plaguing every corner of the federal government. Year after year, we lose hundreds of billions—potentially $233 billion to $521 billion annually to fraud alone, according to estimates from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) based on recent data. When you add in improper payments, which totaled about $162 billion in FY 2024 across just a handful of reported programs (with cumulative improper payments since 2003 reaching $2.8 trillion), the scale becomes staggering. These aren’t minor bookkeeping errors—they represent taxpayer dollars stolen, squandered, or funneled into corrupt schemes, while hardworking Mississippi families struggle with inflation and rising costs.

In every campaign I’ve run, I’ve made fighting this theft a central issue because it’s one of the most critical threats to our nation’s fiscal health. We report these massive losses annually through audits and reports, yet Washington does virtually nothing meaningful to stop them. Politicians from both parties talk tough but refuse to truly end the “steal.” It makes you wonder just how deeply some elected officials—or their cronies—are involved in profiting from the system. The federal government has become a perceived cash cow for corruption, with insiders and opportunists lining up for their share, and the country can’t survive if we allow this to continue unchecked.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative was a bold and necessary start under the current administration to expose and cut this waste, but it must become permanent—not a temporary effort that fades away. As your Congressman, I will work immediately to codify DOGE into law, ensuring it has lasting authority to root out inefficiencies across agencies.

We also need modern tools to fight back. Our outdated government computer systems are part of the problem—fragmented, vulnerable, and easy to exploit. I will push to update these systems and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) to detect anomalies, flag suspicious payments in real time, and prevent fraud before dollars leave the Treasury. AI can analyze vast datasets far faster and more accurately than humans ever could, closing loopholes that criminals exploit.

Finally, accountability must be real and severe. Those who commit fraud—whether bureaucrats, contractors, or even politicians profiting from it—should face prosecution and prison time, not slaps on the wrist. I will advocate for stronger enforcement, whistleblower protections, and legislation that holds wrongdoers criminally accountable.

Eliminating even a fraction of this fraud and waste could go a long way toward balancing our budget, reducing the debt burden on our children, and restoring trust in government. Mississippi taxpayers deserve better than to see their hard-earned money vanish into a black hole of corruption. In Congress, I will make rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse a top priority—because every dollar stolen is a dollar taken from our families, our communities, and our future.

Together, we can end the era of unchecked theft and make government work for the people again, not against them.