Team Trump’s anti-fraud drive is making more news – Latest News
If Team Trump’s anti-fraud efforts typically look a bit all-over-the-map, that’s as a result of the map is so extremely massive.
The feds spend over $7 billion a 12 months, and fraudsters look to money in on each dime; with Vice President JD Vance on level, the White House has organized a full-court press to struggle back.
One day this week, the Justice Department introduced it had lastly nabbed a fugitive Medicare fraudster on the lam since 2022, who allegedly stole more than half a billion {dollars}, whilst Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Medicare-Medicaid czar Dr. Mehmet Oz froze over $1 billion in funding to California and Minnesota over obvious Medicaid fraud.
About the identical time, Scott Bessent’s Treasury stopped $100 million in tax money going to useless people due to new verification procedures, whereas the IRS chief revealed that a latest scrub of the Social Security Number database discovered that one in 10 recipients have been erroneously listed.
That follows latest news of blatant adult-day-care scams in Queens and a drive to claw back $1 billion in COVID-era unemployment fraud which will nonetheless be nabbing $2 million a day in New York.
Last month, appearing Attorney General Todd Blanche introduced fees in opposition to 455 people for $6.5 billion in health-care fraud.
All this is theft of the taxpayers and of the oldsters these authorities packages are alleged to help: That ought to outrage Republicans and Democrats alike.
And politicians of each events must be embarrassed that the crackdowns are solely coming now, years after fraudsters notoriously made off with tens and even tons of of billions in COVID-relief monies.
Yes, some of the crackdown depends on new technology: Kennedy touted the use of AI, superior analytics and “other cutting-edge tools” to ID suspicious Medicaid outlays.
But a lot of it is simply what Alexander Hamilton known as “energy in the executive,” which means management from President Donald Trump and his high people.
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For instance, the FBI created a Most Wanted Fraudsters record, which has now nabbed three main suspects: Khalid Satary, the one captured this week, plus Herbert Kimble, who allegedly stole $1.2 billion in a Medicare telemedicine scheme, and Said Abdullahi Ereg, accused of fraud totaling $4.2 million in a child-nutrition program.
Yet Democrats need to ignore or deny all of it: Govs. Tim Walz and Gavin Newsom complained about “health care cuts” as Kennedy and Oz lowered the increase on them, although each have been dashing to crack down on fraud of their states after the feds began exposing it.
And don’t overlook the Dem boycott of Sen. Rand Paul’s fraud listening to final week.
We count on fairly sleazy stuff has gone on in pink states, too, with some of the income flowing to Republican politicians.
But Democrats seemingly fear that the worst may have gone on in blue ones — as a result of these states all the time concentrate on growing authorities spending as if it doesn’t matter the place the money really goes.
Whatever the rationale, it’s a horrible search for a bunch that used to think about themselves the occasion of the people, not the fraudsters.
