Tag: taxes

DHS Probes Whether California’s Noncitizen Handout Program Is Paying ‘Ineligible Illegal Aliens’

The Trump administration is investigating whether California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), a program that pays state money to noncitizens who are not eligible for Social Security benefits because of their immigration status, is paying “ineligible illegal aliens.”

Noncitizens who are over 65, blind or disabled, and are ineligible for Social Security benefits — specifically Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payment — due to their immigration status alone, can receive CAPI benefits. Those eligible can typically receive up to $1,206.94 a month, according to California Disability Benefits 101.

U.S. citizens are not eligible to receive CAPI. In July 2024 alone, CAPI paid 16,852 recipients, a state report shows.  

CAPI benefits are purportedly reserved for eligible noncitizens who are legally present in the U.S. or meet refugee criteria. However, ICE Homeland Security Investigations served a subpoena Monday to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, which administers CAPI, to “determine if ineligible illegal aliens received Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from the Social Security Administration” from January 2021 to present.

According to the DHS, the subpoena requests applicant information, including name and date of birth, application copies, immigration status, and proof of ineligibility for benefits from the Social Security Administration.

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Department of Defense Orders Halt to Gender Transition Medicine, Procedures

The U.S. Department of Defense said in a new memorandum that it is halting medical treatments and procedures for troops who identify as transgender and other personnel with gender dysphoria (GD).

“Within the direct care component, meaning at military medical treatment facilities … Service members and all other covered beneficiaries 19 years of age or older may only receive mental health care and counseling for GD,” Dr. Stephen L. Ferrara, acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in the memo, which is dated May 9.

“Apart from consults for the diagnosis of GD and provision of mental health care and counseling … staff will refer all other care (e.g., cross-sex hormone therapy) for GD to the private sector.”

The Pentagon did not return a request for comment by publication time.

Gender dysphoria refers to when a person believes they’re a gender that’s different from their sex.

President Donald Trump, after taking office in January, said in an order that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”

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A Closer Look at ARIA: Britain’s Secretive £800 Million Sun-Dimming Quango

The UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), established in 2023 with an £800 million purse of taxpayer funds, received a burst of publicity last week when it was unveiled that the agency was planning to “dim the sun” to fight global warming. The agency approved £56.8 million to be spent on “climate cooling” projects which include looking into the logistics of building a ‘sunshade’ in space and injecting plumes of salt water into the sky to reflect sunlight away from Earth.

ARIA is the brainchild of Dominic Cummings, a prominent British political strategist who served as the chief adviser to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019 to 2020. Cummings pitched a lean, “audacious” agency to fund high-stakes research in AI, quantum computing and synthetic biology, sidestepping the “timid bureaucracy” of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). In a research paper published in 2018 on his website, ‘On the ARPA/PARC “Dream Machine”, science funding, high performance and UK national strategy’, Cummings proposed a high-powered publicly-funded British research agency to emulate the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC).

The latter two entities inculcated high-risk, high-reward research with minimal bureaucracy and exemplified high-performance team performance, flexible work processes and visionary leadership. They yielded many innovations such as GPS, the internet, laser printing, the graphical user interface and the computer mouse, which resulted in large societal and economic returns.

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Congress advances $3.5 billion cut for CA for covering illegal immigrant health care

A new Congressional budget proposal would cut federal payments to California by $3.5 billion for allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in the state’s taxpayer-funded health care program.

California largely does not get federal reimbursements for illegal immigrant health care, though it is reimbursed for emergency care under a federal law requiring hospitals receiving federal funding to treat anyone in need of emergency medical attention.

The budget proposal would cut the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage to states that “use their Medicaid infrastructure to provide health care coverage for illegal immigrants under Medicaid or another state-based program.” The cuts would not impact emergency care reimbursements.

California has spent $9.5 billion this year on illegal immigrant health care and is reportedly set to face a $10 billion budget deficit the coming fiscal year.

According to an analysis Monday morning from California Policy Center Visiting Fellow Marc Joffe, cutting the federal reimbursement share from 90% to 80% would reduce California’s federal funding by $3.5 billion.

While the federal government does not reimburse the state for non-emergency care for illegal immigrants, other federal health care reimbursements enhance the state’s available resources for fully state-funded health care programs, such as coverage for illegal immigrants.

Joffee also noted the $3.5 billion cut equates to roughly the cost of coverage of five million beneficiaries at $7,000 per year.

In March, California Gov. Gavin Newsom requested a $6.4 billion emergency bailout for Medi-Cal. He said that while benefits for illegal immigrants had a “partial” impact, ending benefits for such individuals was not on his “docket” and that he believes in “universal healthcare.”

With an estimated 1.9 million illegal immigrants and $9.5 billion spent by Medi-Cal on their health care, the state is spending approximately $5,000 per illegal immigrant on health care this year.

Working illegal immigrants in California earn a median wage of $13 per hour — well below the state’s $18 per hour minimum wage — and thus pay up to $1,846 per year in state taxes, assuming all income is property reported and taxed, and all non-rent, post-tax funds are spent at businesses collecting sales tax.

That’s well short of the average of $5,000 spent on each illegal immigrant’s health care — not including other state programs — leaving the program highly reliant on other state revenue, including indirectly via federal funding, for support.

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House GOP Floats Proposal To Ensure Non-Citizens Do Not Receive Tax-Funded Food Stamps

House Republicans are proposing to bar most non-citizens from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits, including food stamps, in President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.”

GOP lawmakers are pursuing an extensive overhaul of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help offset the cost of the president’s tax priorities. The House Agriculture Committee will include a provision in their draft bill to restrict SNAP benefits to those who are citizens or lawful permanent residents following Republican Illinois Rep. Mary Miller’s request to the panel to prohibit certain non-citizens from receiving food stamps. 

“Taxpayer-funded benefits like SNAP are intended for Americans in need, not foreigners who break the law to enter this country,” Miller told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “That’s why I fought to include my proposal in the Agriculture Committee’s reconciliation plan, saving taxpayers up to $8 billion over the next decade and reversing Biden’s unlawful handouts given to millions of illegal aliens. I appreciate my colleagues on the committee for working with me to include this critical reform in President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill.”

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Whistleblowers say human trafficking hotline operator failed to report tips to law enforcement

The Polaris Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that administers the National Human Trafficking Hotline, regularly fails to refer tips to law enforcement for investigation, whistleblowers told the Senate Judiciary Committee, confirming an earlier complaint from a bipartisan group of state attorneys general. The Polaris Project in 2023 received $4,831,020 in government grants, according to the charity’s IRS filings. 

The National Human Trafficking Hotline says that it is supported by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $5 million annually.  

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, whose agency oversees Polaris’ use of ACF funding, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley presented the evidence turned over to Congress by an anonymous employee of Polaris and detailed the allegations.

The whistleblowers’ disclosures, Grassley wrote, “appear to confirm the allegations that Polaris is not reporting instances of potential human trafficking to law enforcement.” 

Neither Project Polaris nor the Health and Human Services department responded to requests for comment from Just the News.

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Elon Musk Reveals DOGE Discovered 100,000 Active Federal Employees Who Were Also Collecting Unemployment Insurance!

Elon Musk joined Lara Trump on her show “My View”  last Saturday night on FOX News.

During their conversation, Elon revealed that the DOGE Team found 100,000 active federal employees, who also collected unemployment insurance benefits, while they were still at work.

Collecting insurance benefits while still working is considered unemployment insurance fraud. Many states classify unemployment fraud as a misdemeanor or felony.

Jail time is a significant risk and can range from several months to several years.

Elon Musk says 100,000 government employees have committed this dishonest and fraudulent act.

Elon Musk:  We’ve actually found there’s a lot of people who are federal government employees. They’re active employees who nonetheless applied for and have received unemployment insurance. While they’re federal employees? Yes. Wow. And this appears to be at least 100,000 people.

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REPORT: USAID Officer Charged With Pandemic Bailout Fraud

When USAID came under the microscope of DOGE, people on the left absolutely flipped out. They all acted like USAID was above reproach and that the world would come to an end if it wasn’t fully funded.

Not only did the world not end, but now we’re learning that a senior officer for the organization has been charged with bailout fraud from the pandemic.

We are probably going to see fraud like this uncovered for years to come.

The Daily Wire reports:

USAID Contracting Officer Charged With Pandemic Bailout Fraud

A USAID employee in charge of managing contracts for the agency created a fake company to fraudulently secure coronavirus benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday.

“Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported court document. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.”

Prosecutors said that in November 2020, Akoll registered a company in Virginia called Naagode Consulting LLC, then applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the coronavirus bailout package, claiming he worked at Naagode and the money was necessary to prevent job losses.

Only companies in operation in February 2020 were eligible, so he falsely said it was established in January 2020. To establish a loss of income, he said the company had $40,000 in income in 2019 when it actually had no income, prosecutors said.

Is anyone really shocked by this?

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DOGE Announces Deactivation of 500,000 Federal Credit Cards

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said on May 7 that it has canceled about half a million “unneeded” credit cards used by federal agencies.

In a post on social media platform X, DOGE wrote that over the past 10 weeks, its program to audit “unused” or “unneeded” credit cards has been expanded to 32 federal agencies.

DOGE, led by tech billionaire and Trump administration adviser Elon Musk, said that more than 500,000 agency credit cards were deactivated in that time period, out of roughly 4.6 million active cards and accounts used by the government.

“So, still more work to do,” the organization wrote in the post, which included a screenshot of a spreadsheet showing the canceled agency cards.

The spreadsheet showing what cards were canceled included ones used by the Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, Labor Department, Small Business Association, Treasury Department, Commerce Department, Interior Department, Education Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development Department, Defense Department, Health and Human Services Department, State Department, and others.

The May 7 statement means that DOGE has canceled another 30,000 credit cards used by agencies since mid-April, when it provided the last update on the effort.

At the time, Musk reposted DOGE’s comment and claimed that “twice as many credit cards are issued and active than the total number of government employees.”

DOGE’s website says that it has saved about $165 billion, or $1,000 per taxpayer, since it was established through an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January.

Days before that, top congressional Democrats alleged that DOGE, the Trump administration, and Musk were holding up some $430 billion in funds that they said were appropriated by Congress.

Trump’s drive to downsize and reshape the federal government has already led to the dismantling of entire agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

DOGE has been a major part of that effort, and the White House has said it is responsible for tackling what it calls fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government, while streamlining operations.

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Leaked: Science Mag’s Batsh*t Insane Interview With NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya

“Jocelyn, you know, I just, I’m really uncomfortable with this conversation because you’re like actually spreading rumors that you don’t know anything about.”

The charge from NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya came during an uncomfortable and confusing interview with Science Magazine reporter Jocelyn Kaiser last week. The DisInformation Chronicle is releasing a recording of the interview and a transcript.

During almost 20 minutes of back and forth, Kaiser pressed Bhattacharya several times to account for canceled grants as well as news accounts of turmoil inside the agency, while Bhattacharya asked Kaiser to clarify and explain exactly what she was asking. Kaiser’s interview then ended up in two Science Magazine articles that falsely implied Bhattacharya misled Kaiser about a new policy on NIH grants.

Confusing, contentious exchange

Skipping about in a rambling, meandering path, much of the Kaiser interview concerned reports of problems that Bhattacharya claimed he had fixed in his first month as director. However, a proposed policy to ensure that subawards to foreign universities were better managed seemed to take center stage.

KAISER: Okay, so since you brought it up, kind of skipping around here, but so as you know, as you may not have seen the story. But we had heard it too, that there’s going to be a policy canceling collaborations, foreign collaborations.

BHATTACHARYA: No, that’s false.

KAISER: Is there going to be some sort of policy that…

BHATTACHARYA: There was a policy, there’s going to be policy on tracking subawards.

KAISER: What does it mean?

BHATTACHARYA: I mean, if you’re going to give a subaward, we should be able—the NIH and the government should be able see where the money’s going.

Later in the interview, Kaiser noted that Nature Magazine ran an article on a proposed NIH policy that reported all foreign grants might end.

“I mean, Nature also is spreading rumors, right?” Bhattacharya responded. “There’s no announced policy about, what did you say, like ‘halt foreign collaborations.’ Not true.”

Based upon unnamed sources but headlined as an “exclusive,” Nature Magazine reported that the NIH was threatening thousands of global health projects by ceasing foreign awards to laboratories and hospitals outside the United States. Further down in the piece, Nature reported that it was unclear from sources whether the policy “would apply to all research funds to non-US institutions or only ‘subawards’, which are NIH funds that a US researcher can give to an international collaborator to help complete a project.”

Confusion over whether the upcoming NIH policy would cover all research funds or just subawards continued throughout Science Magazine’s interview, with Bhattacharya telling Kaiser she would have to wait until the policy is announced. “There’s no intent to cancel the foreign collaborations, it’s just not true,” Bhattacharya said. “That’s just a rumor being spread falsely by Nature. And now apparently, I hope you don’t spread it.”

Shortly after the interview, the NIH published their new policy which only covers subawards. “NIH continues to support direct foreign awards,” the policy reads.

“’This is insane:’ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage,” reported Science Magazine’ headline. Hinting to readers that Bhattacharya lied to Kaiser in his interview, Science Magazine falsely implied that Nature Magazine had reported the upcoming policy would only concern subawards.

Concerns about subaward changes grew earlier this week, with Nature reporting on an apparent draft of the policy on Wednesday, before it was finalized. NIH’s new director, Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, dismissed the report as “rumors” in an interview with Science on Thursday morning, hours before he announced the new policy.

In a post on Bluesky, Science reporter Jon Cohen also implied that Bhattacharya had lied during the interview.

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