Tag: taxes

JD Vance, Dr. Oz make dramatic move withholding $259.5M Minnesota Medicaid funds in first battle in the ‘war on fraud’

Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that $259.5 million in Medicaid funds for Minnesota won’t be reimbursed due to fraud concerns — giving Democratic Gov. Tim Walz 60 days to submit a “corrective action plan” or face further withholdings.

Vance was joined by Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to make the announcement, which was first reported by The Post — one day after President Trump announced a Vance-led “war on fraud” in his State of the Union address.

The men also announced a national pause on firms that can seek subsidies through Medicare for durable medical equipment like canes and walkers.

“We are going to start very aggressively in the administration cracking down on the people and the organizations that are defrauding Americans,” Vance pledged after being delegated the role by Trump.

Oz said “Gov. [Tim] Walz has 60 days — 60 days, sir — to respond to our letter” if he wants repayment, which Oz said will require the state to “propose and act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem.”

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LA city council set to write $177 million in checks to activist nonprofits — including groups that sued the city

Los Angeles City Council members are poised to vote Tuesday on roughly $177 million in fast-tracked contracts, funneling taxpayer cash to a tight circle of powerful tenant-advocacy nonprofits — including groups that have repeatedly sued the city.

The package, championed by lefty mayoral hopeful Councilmember Nithya Raman, would lock in three-year deals financed largely by Measure ULA’s mansion-tax revenue. The money will primarily be used to run tenant eviction defense and homelessness-prevention programs.

Earlier this month, Raman’s Housing and Homelessness Committee signed off on the plan, clearing the way for final council approval of contracts with four dominant players in LA’s tenant-advocacy ecosystem: the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), Liberty Hill Foundation and the Southern California Housing Rights Center.

Together, the organizations form the backbone of the city’s “Stay Housed LA” network — a powerful alliance that provides legal defense, rental assistance and tenant organizing across Los Angeles while wielding significant influence at City Hall.

The same groups are also widely known for their aggressive street activism, organizing protests, demonstrations and rent strikes, and for filing high-profile lawsuits against the city over homelessness sweeps, policing and housing policies.

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Dearborn Heights Pharmacist Pleads in $3.2 Million Medicare, Medicaid Fraud Scheme

Pharmacist Mohammad Hamdan of Dearborn Heights pleaded guilty Tuesday to involvement in a fraudulent scheme that cost Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan more than $3 million in losses.

Hamdan, 44, admitted that from February 2019 through June 2024, he used his two pharmacies to submit false and fraudulent claims for prescriptions even though the prescribed drugs were medically unnecessary, were not actually dispensed, or were not ordered by a physician, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

In many instances, the pharmacies — Prime Pharmacy at 1948 Ford Ave. in Wyandotte and Corner Med Pharmacy at 25302 W. Warren Street in Dearborn Heights — did not have the drugs on hand but billed insurers as if he dispensed them.

In all, Hamdan submitted false and fraudulent claims totaling over $3.2 million.

Hamdan faces a possible maximum sentence of not more than 10 years in prison.

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Radical Socialists AOC and Zohran Mamdani Team Up to Promote FREE DAYCARE for Illegal Aliens in All-Spanish Video — ‘America Last’ Agenda on Full Display!

Outrageous! Just when you thought the radical left couldn’t spit in the face of hard-working American citizens any harder, they find a new way to prioritize lawbreakers over taxpayers.

Radical socialists Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have teamed up to push free daycare for illegal aliens, using American taxpayer dollars.

The duo released a video entirely in Spanish, with English subtitles, shamelessly instructing illegal immigrants on how to enroll their kids in NYC’s 3-K and Pre-K programs, regardless of immigration status.

The video, posted by the NYC Mayor’s Office, features Mamdani admitting his Spanish “isn’t the best” before handing off to AOC to deliver the sales pitch.

With American and NYC flags in the background, as if to mock our sovereignty, they emphasize that “any parent in New York City, regardless of occupation, income, or immigration status, is eligible to register their children.”

Mamdani goes on to highlight how families have been ‘suffering deep financial ruin’ from childcare costs up to $26,000 per year, but conveniently forgets that these programs are bankrolled by citizens who follow the law.

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Judge Cannon Permanently Blocks Release of Jack Smith’s Report, TORCHES Former Special Counsel in Latest Ruling

Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday permanently blocked the release of Jack Smith’s report on the classified documents case against President Trump.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, slammed Jack Smith for compiling the Trump report after she dismissed the case.

“Special Counsel Smith and his team went ahead for months, undeterred, preparing [the classified documents report] using discovery collected in connection with this proceeding and expending government funds in the process,” Judge Cannon wrote in a 15-page ruling.

“To say this chronology represents, at a minimum, a concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order is an understatement, if not an outright violation of it.”

“While it is true that former special counsels have released final reports at the conclusion of their work, it appears they have done so either after electing not to bring charges at all or after adjudications of guilt by plea or trial. The Court strains to find a situation in which a former special counsel has released a report after initiating criminal charges that did not result in a finding of guilt,” Cannon wrote.

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Trump Administration Issues Rule to Block Illegal Aliens from Taxpayer-Funded Housing

President Donald Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has issued a rule to prevent illegal aliens from gaining access to taxpayer-funded housing, like Section 8, meant for low-income Americans.

On Thursday, HUD issued its rule to require proof of American citizenship or eligible immigration status for such housing aid:

Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980, as amended (“Section 214”), prohibits the Secretary of HUD from making financial assistance available to persons other than United States citizens or certain categories of eligible noncitizens in HUD’s public and specified assisted housing programs. This proposed rule would revise HUD’s Section 214 implementing regulations to require the verification of U.S. citizenship or the eligible immigration status of all applicants and recipients of assistance under a covered program regardless of age. The proposed rule would also make prorated assistance a temporary condition pending verification of eligible status of all family members, where permitted by statute, as opposed to under HUD’s current regulations where prorated assistance could continue indefinitely. These amendments would bring HUD’s regulations into greater alignment with the wording and purpose of Section 214 and align with the current Administration’s priorities and regulatory reform efforts. [Emphasis added]

HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the rule is meant to close a long-held loophole that has allowed illegal aliens to secure public housing assistance. About two percent of illegal alien-headed households are on housing assistance, as well as six percent of legal immigrant-headed households.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the days of illegal aliens, ineligibles, and fraudsters gaming the system and riding the coattails of American taxpayers are over,” Turner told Politico. “We have zero tolerance for pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens while enabling others to exploit decades-old loopholes.”

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FBI Wins Court Ruling to Keep Twitter Payments Secret

A federal judge has handed the FBI a win in its attempts to keep secrets. On February 4th, Chief Judge James Boasberg ruled that the bureau can keep secret the precise amounts it paid Twitter between 2016 and 2023 for complying with legal process requests.

Judicial Watch, which had sued under the Freedom of Information Act, walked away empty-handed.

We obtained a copy of the opinion for you here.

You may remember our earlier reporting on how the FBI was paying Twitter. The payments totaled at least $3.4 million between October 2019 and February 2021 alone. That figure emerged from the Twitter Files released in December 2022. The FBI has never confirmed it. Neither has Twitter. And now, thanks to Boasberg’s ruling, the quarterly breakdown that would show exactly when the money flowed, and how much, stays buried.

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NYC Socialist Mayor Eyes Activist Who Called CPS ‘Genocide for Black People’ to Lead Child Welfare Agency

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is considering Angela Burton, a 65-year-old activist known for her criticism of Child Protective Services (CPS), to lead the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS).

Burton has described CPS as a form of “slow extractive genocide for black people in America” in a 2023 X post and likened it to “child slavery” in another post from July 2023.

“Leave Black people alone. Your numbers and methods are treasure. Racist garbage in, racist garbage out. We don’t need CPS. CPS is Slow extractive Genocide for Black people in America. We know what you’re up to,” Burton wrote.

Currently, Burton serves on Children’s Rights’ New York Mandated Reporting Working Group, which seeks to narrow mandated reporting laws to reduce what it calls over-surveillance and family separations, particularly affecting Black, Latino, and low-income families.

Burton has also posted on X calling CPS a “grave and imminent threat” to children and families, accusing CPS employees of racism, and advocating for defunding police and the abolition of the “foster care industrial complex.”

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REPORT: Obama’s Hideous Presidential Center is Going to Cost Chicago Taxpayers A LOT MORE Than They Were Told

In addition to being ugly, the new Obama presidential center is going to be a massive financial burden on the people of Chicago.

They were sold a bill of goods about how the center was going to bring tourism and revenue to the city, but not so much about the costs.

In this sense, it is a perfect monument to Obama’s legacy. Overpriced and based on lies, much like Obamacare.

FOX News reports:

Bureaucrats hide true price of Obama Presidential Center as taxpayers hit with infrastructure bill

Former President Barack Obama once declared that his presidential center would be a “gift” to Chicago, but taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in hidden costs related to the beleaguered project.

A Fox News Digital investigation shows taxpayers are now stuck footing the bill for surging public infrastructure costs required to support the project — and no government agency can provide an accounting of the total public cost, despite months of queries and FOIA requests…

When the project was approved in 2018, Obama pledged to privately fund construction of the expansive 19.3-acre campus in historic Jackson Park through donations to the Obama Foundation – a commitment that remains in place as the center’s construction continues to be privately financed.

But the extensive infrastructure required to make the campus operationally viable — including redesigned roads, stormwater systems, and relocated utilities — is publicly financed, and without those changes, the center could not function.

At the time, projections placed public infrastructure costs at roughly $350 million, split between the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago.

Eight years later, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) told Fox News Digital that approximately $229 million in infrastructure spending was tied to the site, up from its earlier estimate of roughly $174 million.

The $229 million figure reflects state-managed spending, which may include federal transportation funds routed through IDOT.

The report goes on to state that the agencies which are supposed to be overseeing the accounting on the project are not being upfront with taxpayers and are providing ‘estimates’ of ongoing costs.

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Mamdani Is Collapsing Faster Than We Thought

You can’t say we didn’t warn New York what was going to happen if it elected Zohran Mamdani, but I gotta say, I don’t think anyone predicted it would start collapsing so quickly. But, alas, it has. That socialist utopia that Mamdani was supposed to deliver has instead turned into a slow-motion fiscal catastrophe a mere two months in — and even the liberal media is starting to notice.

Mamdani unveiled a $127 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 this week — a staggering $5 billion increase over the prior year.

But what’s $5 billion between socialists, right?

To put that into perspective, Mamdani’s proposed budget is actually larger than the budgets of 47 U.S. states, including Florida, which has nearly twice the population. And somehow, it still isn’t enough. The city is staring down a $5.4 billion deficit, with the real gap potentially closer to $12 billion when you do the actual math.

So what was his plan? Tax someone else.

Mamdani went straight to Albany looking for a handout, demanding that Gov. Kathy Hochul raise taxes on the “ultra-wealthy” and the most profitable corporations. When Hochul told him to pound sand and cut spending instead, he obviously couldn’t do that, and now he is looking at saddling homeowners with a 9.5% property tax hike.

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