Seriously. How bad does it have to get? We’ve chronicled on these pages the more than $150 billion in payments to fraudsters who ripped off taxpayers in the Medicaid, PPP, food stamps, and unemployment programs.

So we weren’t surprised, just severely depressed, when we saw this headline from our friends at the New York Post:

The investigators discovered that the fraud soared during the pandemic because the feds and the state “loosened eligibility rules in an already crumbling state unemployment system, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli charged Tuesday.” He says his auditors believe there were billions more in fraud payments the investigators still have not uncovered.

By the way, the New York Governor when all this money was stolen: Andrew Cuomo.

Does anyone remember him? During COVID, the media gushed about Cuomo’s performance. Incredibly, he wants to make a political comeback.

Why was fraud so rampant? The auditors point to a change in the benefit rules under the CARES Act which “allowed claimants under these temporary programs to self-certify their eligibility and wages and required states to make immediate eligibility determinations.”

Pelosi and the Dems in Congress wrote the bill, but Trump deserves a share of the blame for signing it with these super-loose eligibility standards.

Will Republicans who now control the House do anything to chase down the fraudsters and get the money that was stolen from taxpayers back? Will people be put in jail for theft?  If they won’t, then they are just as guilty as the Democrats.