Tag: taxes

Waste Of The Day: Veterans’ Hospital Equipment Is Missing

Topline: The Veterans Health Administration has lost an estimated 5% of its reusable medical equipment worth at least $211 million — including exam tables, computers and microscopes — and “will continue to do so if processes are not improved,” according to a new audit from the Veterans Affairs inspector general.

Key facts: VA hospitals own over 2 million pieces of nonexpendable equipment that is meant to be used for two years or more, valued at $12 billion. Federal auditors recently visited hospitals to see if the VA was properly tracking the equipment and found that thousands of items had disappeared.

The auditors estimated that a third of the equipment — 537,000 items — is in a different location than inventory records claim, and an additional 75,500 items are missing entirely.

It’s possible there is even more missing equipment, because the VA is only required to keep track of inventory worth more than $5,000.

Some of the nonexpendable equipment is tracked using electronic tags, but some of the tags have dead batteries or only show what building the item is in and not what room.

The VA also uses an “inventory by exception” system in which items that have their location recorded during routine maintenance do not need to be included in annual inventory reports for up to 24 months, even though most items are required to be logged every 12 months. Auditors wrote that “a lot can go wrong, including losing equipment,” because of the inventory-by-exception system.

There are also staffing issues contributing to the missing equipment. Some VA employees working on inventory could not search for items because they did not have the keys to all the rooms in the hospital. Some hospitals have staffing levels below 40%, which employees said made it harder to fill out inventory reports on time.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

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NPR’s Latest Article on the Charlie Kirk Assassination Is Why It Got Defunded

You only have to read a few paragraphs into this article about the Charlie Kirk assassination in National Public Radio to see why this lefty outlet got defunded. It’s as if none of these clowns watched the press conference by Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray this week, where he said that the suspected assassin, Tyler Robinson, was a leftist. He targeted Kirk due to his beliefs. This ‘we don’t know the motive’ represents another legacy media fail, one where mockery and dismissal are warranted. The best part of NPR’s line is that we need to know more about Robinson’s position on—get this—labor and immigration issues before we can make a political determination (via NPR) [emphasis mine]:

In their charging document, authorities cite text messages that Robinson allegedly exchanged with “his lover/roommate,” a person they describe as “a biological male who was transitioning genders.” The document also includes another text in which Robinson allegedly explains that he killed Kirk because he had “had enough of his hatred.” 

The presumed motive has added fire to a rash of speculation by high-reach conservatives, who have suggested that this motive equated to a political ideology. The same day Kirk was killed, President Trump claimed the shooter was a “radical leftist.” Others have suggested that the suspect may have been “groomed” by a “trans terror cell” and that he was perhaps working with larger groups, including “antifa.” So far, these claims have not been supported by publicly released evidence. 

In fact, little is still known about Robinson’s politics. According to the charging document, his mother told investigators that he had become more “pro-gay and trans-rights oriented” within the last year. It also includes a text message, allegedly written by Robinson, that said “since trump got into office [my dad] has been pretty diehard maga.” But Robinson is not registered with a political party in Utah. There is no evidence of his positions on other issues of importance to the left, such as immigration or labor. 

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Feds Charge Somalis with Massive $8.4 Million Medicaid Fraud

The U.S. attorney in Minnesota announced charges against eight Somali migrants connected to $8.4 million in Medicaid billing fraud hidden inside a state-funded housing program.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson announced Thursday that an investigation found that the eight suspects provided Medicaid with long lists of “clients” who they claimed to have worked with to enroll into Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Service and billed Medicaid for this work. But, investigators say that no such work was ever performed and the clients were fictional.

The HSS fraud only adds to the growing number of fraudulent and mismanaged state programs, including the hundreds of autism clinics that wasted tens of millions in state tax dollars, and the $250 million fraud in a coronavirus relief program that was supposed to pay for food for children.

“Most of these individuals did not receive the stable housing they so desperately needed,” Thompson said during a Thursday press conference said. “The money was just simply stolen.”

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‘Largest NEH Grant in History’ Awarded to Jewish Org to Counter ‘Pathology of Antisemitism,’ Teach Talmud

The Trump administration, through the National Endowment for the Humanities, is giving the largest grant in the agency’s history — over $10 million — to the Jewish-American neoconservative Tikvah Fund to counter “the pathology of anti-Semitism” and teach the Talmud.

The Tikvah Fund is an Israel First group dedicated to advancing “Jewish excellence” that is run by CEO Eric Cohen and famed neoconservative Elliott Abrams.

The group made headlines last month for contributing “nearly 400,000 shekels (around $110,000)” to translate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s book into Hebrew and not reporting it as a political donation, Haaretz reported last month.

“Even though the memoir was used in the Likud campaign and some of the revenues presumably went to Netanyahu as the author, the 400,000 shekels was not reported as a political donation,” Haaretz noted.

From Haaretz, “U.S. Nonprofit Gave Over $100,000 to Publish Netanyahu’s Autobiography. It Wasn’t Reported as a Donation”:

The Tikvah Fund was founded in the 1990s. The roughly $15 million to $20 million it spends on annual operations are partly funded by donations and from returns on assets bequeathed by American Jewish businessman Zalman Bernstein.

The Tikvah Fund is among the funders of the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative Israeli think tank that provided the blueprint for the effort to weaken the judiciary, as declared by Justice Minister Yariv Levin on January 4, 2023.

Kohelet founder Moshe Koppel sits on Tikvah’s board. The fund has bankrolled conservative projects for years, some of them involving close associates of Netanyahu. These include the Mida website, founded by Netanyahu confidant Ran Baratz, and the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, which is chaired by the former head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben-Shabbat. [Emphasis added]

Haaretz noted that Tikvah also hosts an annual conference in Tel Aviv.

“In its 60-year history, NEH had rarely given more than a few hundred thousand dollars to any single project,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports. “On Monday, the NEH announced an even larger, $10.4 million grant for a nationwide ‘Jewish Civilization Project’ aimed at combating antisemitism.”

“Among the prominent alumni of Tikvah’s programs is Jacob Reses, chief of staff to Vice President J.D. Vance,” JTA added.

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Chinese propaganda has even infiltrated the halls of Congress

On my very first day as a US congressman in January, I walked into my office on Capitol Hill and learned a startling lesson.

There among the array of American newspapers delivered free to every member of Congress was a copy of China Daily — a state-run propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

That’s when I knew my first piece of legislation needed to send a clear message: America is not for sale.

For too long, Washington has looked the other way as foreign adversaries have bought influence, shaped narratives and quietly infiltrated the institutions that are supposed to safeguard our democracy.

The bill I introduced to halt unsolicited delivery of China Daily to Capitol Hill was a necessary act of defense against information warfare being waged on our own soil.

China Daily is not journalism, but the voice of the Chinese Communist Party, registered as a foreign agent under US law.

By allowing it to be distributed through our internal mail systems — with taxpayer resources covering that cost — Congress was effectively endorsing foreign propaganda.

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Defense Department plagued by financial reporting issues that must be fixed to pass full audit: GAO

The Defense Department has been plagued by serious financial reporting issues that must be fixed for the agency to pass a full audit for the first time, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.

“For the seventh consecutive year since the Department of Defense (DOD) was required to undergo full-scope audits, DOD received a disclaimer of opinion on its financial statement audit in fiscal year 2024, meaning DOD could not provide auditors with sufficient, appropriate evidence needed to support information in its financial statements due to ineffective systems and processes,” the GAO reported this month.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2024 requires the agency to “receive an unmodified (clean) audit opinion by December 31, 2028.”

Despite the agency’s failure to pass a full audit, Congress again raised defense spending in fiscal 2025 to nearly $900 billion. 

The defense budget could reach $1 trillion after an additional increase for fiscal 2026, based on President Donald Trump’s budget request.

The Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General identified 28 agency-wide “material weaknesses” in fiscal 2024 that have hindered “sustainable business processes and a functioning internal control environment” for its financial management operations.

GAO’s latest review found that “several identified DOD-wide material weaknesses directly affected $2.1 trillion (50.3 percent) of DOD’s reported assets and $146.9 billion (3.4 percent) of its reported liabilities, indicating that there is an increased risk that these amounts are materially misstated.”

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) defines a material weakness as a “deficiency (or combination of deficiencies) in internal control, such that there is reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of an entity’s financial statements could occur that would not be prevented, or detected and corrected on a timely basis.”

The federal watchdog noted that the Pentagon reported more than $4.1 trillion in assets on its balance sheet as of September 30, 2024. 

“DOD’s assets represent a significant portion of the federal government’s reported total assets. The ability to properly account for and report these assets would improve DOD’s ability to successfully carry out its mission and is critical to achieve an unmodified (clean) audit opinion,” the GAO report reads.

The Defense Department is the only major federal agency that hasn’t received a clean audit opinion on its financial statements. 

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Ashley Moody, Rick Scott urge Donald Trump administration to block proposed international shipping tax

The International Maritime Organization is considering a tax to offset costs of ending carbon emissions from ships.

U.S. Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott drafted a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging the Donald Trump administration to continue efforts to block a proposal by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to implement global carbon pricing tax.

The IMO next month will consider adopting pricing increase charges for shipping for carbon emissions by the vessels. The proposal is designed to guide shipping companies toward zero emissions by 2050, if adopted.

“The proposal, which the IMO is taking up next month, would place an unfair burden on American citizens and businesses,” a news release from Moody’s Office said.

The memorandum sent by Moody and Scott to top Trump administration officials urges continued opposition to the IMO proposal.

“The current proposal presents a direct threat to American interests. The proposed framework would impose a binding, escalating global carbon tax on maritime shipping through a system of increasingly strict emissions tiers and rising levies,” the Moody-Scott letter stated.

The original proposal was drafted in April and the intent is to lower emissions of greenhouse gas by the global shipping industry in general. The taxes on shipping companies would, theoretically, use the revenue to support and augment energy transition to carbon-gas-free ships.

But the letter from the two Senators argues the proposed program would limit American autonomy.

“Despite this enormous financial impact, the United States has virtually no influence over the policy and will receive none of the tax revenue in return. This is taxation without representation and a direct threat to the United States’ economic security,” the letter stated.

Moody and Scott reminded administration officials that the U.S. has substantial sway in the shipping industry. Global ports based in Florida include hubs in South Florida, Tampa, The Panhandle, Jacksonville and Cape Canaveral among other notable nautical centers.

That kind of impact can be used to influence the IMO, they argued.

“The senators urged the administration to immediately apply trade leverage to block the IMO framework and note this as a historic opportunity to restore our nation’s influence in global maritime policy and rapidly reassert American maritime dominance,” Moody’s news release said.

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Budget Office Estimates Tens Of Billions Lost To Obamacare Exchange Fraud

his space has previously reported on the fraud associated with Obamacare, particularly the enhanced Exchange subsidies passed in 2021 that Democrats want to extend. In recent weeks, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has now admitted that the law’s subsidy structure encourages enrollees to lie about their income.

These reports come on top of the fact that passing a subsidy extension could expand funding for abortion-related travel, in ways that undermine state pro-life protections. It’s all enough to make one wonder why Republican “leaders” are making noises about extending the enhanced subsidies before their expiration on December 31.

Impact of Skewed Incentives

Prior studies by the Paragon Health Institute have examined the incentives created by the Exchange subsidy regime to falsify income estimates. (Disclosure: While I have done work for Paragon, I had no involvement with this particular report, and am writing this article on my own behalf.)

Those incentives work in two ways: On the one hand, enrollees with income below the poverty level have an incentive to inflate their income up to the poverty level, because otherwise they will not qualify for subsidies at all. (This dynamic largely applies in the 10 red states that have not expanded Medicaid, because enrollees with below-poverty income levels in expansion states would qualify for Medicaid expansion.) On the other hand, enrollees with higher incomes — say, between two and four times the poverty level — have an incentive to understate their income, to qualify for the richest subsidies.

Paragon concluded that, in 2025, there are approximately 6.4 million people with incomes just above the poverty level with potentially fraudulent enrollment, either for over- or under-stating their income. In its estimation, these enrollees led to approximately $27.1 billion in estimated taxpayer losses due to Exchange fraud.

Budget Office Estimates

As part of its responses to questions from congressional Republicans, CBO recently revealed for the first time that it, too, believes enrollees are lying about their income to qualify for Obamacare subsidies:

Estimating the number of people who have improperly received subsidies for marketplace [i.e., Exchange] coverage is difficult. The agency has, however, specifically estimated that 1.3 million marketplace enrollees improperly claimed the premium tax credit [i.e., subsidies] via intentional overstatement of income for 2023; 2.3 million enrollees did so for 2025.

The budget agency went on to explain that it could calculate this improper enrollment “because it appears in enrollment data as an unusual concentration of enrollees reporting income just above” the poverty level.

For instance, CBO noted that the number of people reporting income between 100 percent and 105 percent of the poverty level in non-expansion states was 2.6 times the number of people reporting income between 105 percent and 110 percent of the poverty level. CBO also cited tax reporting data indicating that, in 2023, a large number (39 percent) of enrollees claiming the richest subsidies — which are calculated based on expected income — ultimately reported actual income below the poverty level.

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House members to get $10k a month for personal security after Charlie Kirk assassination

ouse members will get $10,000 a month for personal security after the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, the chamber’s leaders announced.

The effort follows the assassination last week of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.

On Wednesday, House leadership made the decision to double the monthly total currently available to legislators in a pilot program created this summer to increase security for members, POLITICO reported.

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil said that the funds to increase the pilot program amount were previously allocated and have been repurposed to bump it up to $10,000, according to the Washington Examiner.

Several House Republicans discussed their dissatisfaction over the $10,000 monthly amount with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Steil.

The additional security funding comes after Kirk, 31, was shot and killed by an assassin last week at Utah Valley University during a Turning Point USA event. Tyler Robinson, 22, has been arrested as the suspected shooter.

Later, when asked if Republican leadership would add more money for member security to the stopgap directly, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said there were “ongoing conversations.”

“We said that at the beginning of the week — is that we’re working with our members to find out how to properly make sure that everybody has the security they need to be safe,” Scalise said.

New York Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle said that “more needs to be done” to ensure the security of lawmakers and congressional staff, “but this is an important and necessary start.”

Steil said, “The goal is having leg[islative] branch [appropriations], which is engaged right now in a conference, of them identifying the appropriate funding level as we go forward.”

The additional security funding announcement comes after a $32 million injection in funds for a program that has been in existence that lets Congress members request security through partnerships between the Capitol Police and local law enforcement agencies. The $32 million is part of the stopgap spending bill. The expansion of the pilot program is funded from a separate pot of money from the current fiscal year.

“The funding can be authorized, we need to make sure that that money is in the right buckets,” Steil said.

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Canadian premier to spend $450k of taxpayer cash paying ‘communist, Marxist’ comedian to write his jokes

A Canadian premier has come under fire after it was revealed he could spend nearly half a million dollars of taxpayer money on a self-proclaimed ‘radical Marxist comedian’ to help write his speeches. 

British Columbia Premier David Eby, 48, secretly hired stand-up comedian Charles Demers, 45, in January of this year – signing a contract that pays him a staggering $165 an hour, with the potential to earn up to $450,000 Canadian dollars ($325,945 USD), according to leaked documents.

Officials have raised two major concerns about the move – the first being Demers’ political stance, as his self-proclaimed identity as a ‘lifelong Marxist’ has sparked controversy and criticism over the years.

In a 2018 interview with CBC, the comedian declared: ‘As a teenager, I was in a radical communist sect, with a Marxist newspaper published in New York that we sold on street corners.’ 

Secondly, British Columbia is grappling with a record-breaking $11.6-billion deficit – the largest in the province’s history – and critics are now blaming Eby for what they call tone-deaf spending decisions. 

‘Premier Eby is telling families and small business to brace for cutbacks while his government quietly signs contracts worth nearly half a million dollars for a comedian,’ B.C. Conservative Peter Milobar said in a statement, according to Juno News.

‘In the middle of the largest deficit in B.C.’s history, this is not only tone-deaf, it’s offensive to every taxpayer,’ he added.

‘At a time that we’re supposed to be having a hiring freeze, at a time that we’re supposed to be seeing potential cutbacks to the workforce, the premier’s office – as long as it suits the premier’s needs – seems to spend money.’ 

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