Tag: taxes

‘Fur Lives Matter’ and the COVID Fraud That Refuses to Die

During COVID, Washington handed out emergency money so quickly that apparently even businesses that weren’t operating could develop pandemic financial problems.

Federal prosecutors have charged Missouri resident Jamie Gray with wire fraud and money laundering after alleging he submitted 29 applications through the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program involving 19 purported businesses. Gray allegedly sought $55,931,875 and ultimately received about $820,000.

Then we get to the company name.

Of the 19 businesses Gray claimed, prosecutors say only one met the basic test of actually existing and operating before the program’s February 15, 2020, eligibility cutoff. Its name was Fur Lives Matter, a real Texas company that investigators say had no knowledge of Gray. Federal authorities allege he simply used the company’s identity.

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Rhode Island:

Beyond newly charged defendants, as part of Operation No Doze, approximately 43 defendants pleaded guilty to SBA-related COVID fraud, reaching approximately $44 million in intended loss.  And approximately 40 defendants were sentenced for SBA-related COVID fraud, reaching nearly $100 million in intended loss.

Together, this targeted surge resulted in fraud enforcement actions spanning over 160 criminal defendants and involved approximately $245 million dollars in intended loss to American taxpayers.

There are fraud cases, and then there are fraud cases that arrive with their own punchline.

The government says the application contained fabricated information about ownership, employees, revenue, and business operations. The allegations haven’t been proven in court, and Gray is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

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America Spends More On Defense R&D Than Any Other OECD Country – By A Mile

On the OECD’s yardstick – defense R&D budget allocations per $1,000 of GDP – the United States spends $3.64. The next country on the list, South Korea, spends $2.06, and nobody else clears a dollar.

Britain is third at $0.97, Germany fourth at $0.79, France fifth at $0.50. The average across the 20 countries ranked is $0.58; the median is $0.27. Greece, at the bottom, spends nine cents.

The gap is about to get wider: the Department of War’s request for fiscal 2027 is $1.5 trillion, 42% above this year’s funding.

As Visual Capitalist explains further, defense research and development is one way countries invest in future military capabilities, from advanced weapons systems to emerging technologies.

This visualization ranks selected OECD countries by defense research and development (R&D) budget allocations per $1,000 of GDP. The data comes from the OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2026 Issue 1, with figures covering 2024 or the latest available year as of August 2026.

Defense R&D has also historically played an important role in shaping civilian technologies. Research tied to national security has helped support breakthroughs in fields such as computing, aerospace, satellites, medicine, and advanced materials. However, the link between military spending and innovation is not automatic, as secrecy can impede knowledge diffusion, among other factors.

The U.S. Leads by a Wide Margin

The United States ranked first, with defense R&D budget allocations equal to $3.64 per $1,000 of GDP. In absolute terms, the U.S. is also the world’s highest military-spending country by a wide margin, with 2025 spending totaling $954 billion and accounting for one-third of global military spending that year.

The U.S. allocation was nearly 1.8 times South Korea’s and more than 3.7 times the United Kingdom’s, which ranked second and third, respectively.

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The $6.7 Billion DOGE Headline Is True. It Also Leaves Out Half the Story.

Washington has discovered a government program that costs billions of dollars, and naturally, everyone is shocked.

The Government Accountability Office says federal agencies spent an estimated $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave in 2025. Roughly $6.7 billion of that was tied to the Trump administration’s Deferred Resignation Program, which allowed workers who agreed to leave government to remain on salary while generally no longer working.

From the GAO:

OPM does not know the actual costs of the paid administrative leave used for workforce reduction efforts, including the deferred resignation program. One of the administration’s stated principles for current workforce reduction efforts is to trim the budget topline by reducing full-time equivalent positions. To support these efforts, federal agencies used millions of workdays of paid administrative leave. To calculate long-term savings, OPM needs to know short-term costs of paid administrative leave used for these efforts. However, OPM cannot easily and accurately do this because the paid administrative leave used for workforce reduction efforts is reported with other types of general paid administrative leave. Without a mechanism to track paid administrative leave for workforce reduction efforts, federal leaders may not have the data needed to understand whether government-wide cost saving goals are being met.

You can understand why the headlines wrote themselves. Federal workers got paid billions not to work during a program associated with DOGE, which was created to cut waste and shrink government.

One national headline simply announced that the government paid workers $9.5 billion “not to work.” Another framed the program as DOGE causing the government to spend billions while supposedly saving money.

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Waste Of The Day: SBA Reviewed Loans 20 Years Late

The Small Business Administration potentially made $11.5 million in improper payments to banks after overruling its own employees who had recommended reducing or denying government guarantees on 16 failed small-business loans.

For another 13 failed loans, SBA took so long to review them that the six-year statute of limitations expired, wasting another $5.4 million, according to an Aug. 27 inspector general report.

Key facts: SBA’s 7(a) program helps startups with a risky business model get loans, but it does not generally lend taxpayer money directly. Private banks make loans of up to $5 million, and the government promises to cover as much as 85% of the loss if the borrower defaults.

But taxpayers only have to honor that guarantee when the bank follows SBA rules. If a bank failed to properly determine whether a borrower could repay the loan, verify required investments or follow other safeguards, SBA can reduce or deny the payout to the bank.

Auditors reviewed 32 failed loans where SBA employees recommended reducing or denying the payouts to banks, but higher-level reviewers later overturned those decisions.

For 16 of the 32 loans, auditors found insufficient evidence to justify the reversal, resulting in $11.5 million worth of potential improper payments. That included almost $4.9 million loaned to borrowers who never showed evidence they could repay the money.

One small business defaulted within 18 months. The bank argued that the small business had a sound strategy, but it failed due to the unforeseen loss of a major customer. The bank provided no evidence for its claim, but the SBA paid the guarantee anyway.

The SBA is also taking far too long to review high-risk loans, the audit found. The agency has only six years to sue a bank for violating the loan terms, but auditors found 13 loans where impropriety was not discovered until that deadline had passed. Two of them were not reviewed for more than 20 years after the loan guarantee was paid.

The SBA legally could have withheld other federal payments to the banks even after the six-year time limit expired, but the SBA has no process for doing so, the audit found.

SBA guaranteed $37 billion through 77,600 new 7(a) loans in fiscal year 2025.

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Illegal Alien Indicted by Federal Grand Jury for Numerous Crimes Including Voter Fraud and Theft of Government Funds

An illegal alien from Mexico was indicted by a federal grand jury this week for numerous crimes, including voter fraud, making a false statement applying for a passport, and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Fredy Avila Gomez is also being indicted on wire fraud and stealing government funds.

Based on court records, from 2017 to 2026, Gomez intentionally defrauded US government agencies and the State of Idaho. The list of agencies included Health and Human Services, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

Gomez allegedly made false claims to be a citizen of the United States in order to vote in elections.

He has his first court appearance scheduled for September 21st in the US District Court for the District of Idaho. Gomez is looking at a maximum of 20 years in federal prison if he is convicted on the charges.

The prosecutors handling the case are Assistant US Attorneys Sean Mazorol and Darci Crane.

The DOJ created the National Fraud Enforcement Division earlier this year to prosecute individuals committing fraud against the United States and its citizens.

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HHS Awards $42.3 Million To Push ‘Treatment First’ Model For Homelessness & Addiction

A federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded $42.3 million in new supplemental cash Friday to states and territories with the goal of speeding up the implementation of the Treatment First model for homelessness tied to addiction.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funding supports the initiative falling under President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” and the relevant Best Practices Toolkit that followed. That order from July 2025 directed agencies to put treatment and recovery ahead of the old approaches.

“President Trump has directed us to break the cycle of homelessness and addiction by putting treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency first,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “These investments will help states move people from crisis into treatment and from treatment into lasting recovery, stable housing, and work. We are funding results that help people reclaim their health and independence.”

About $17.3 million of the funds went to Community Mental Health Services Block Grant recipients. Officials say it builds systems, partnerships, workforce capacity, policies, and the technical pieces needed to make Treatment First a success. The funds will go toward technical assistance, training, policy work, and coordination across systems.

Roughly $25 million went to Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant recipients to expand options for safe, licensed, certified, or chartered sober and recovery housing, as well as the requisite technical assistance to ensure that more recovery residences open and quality standards tighten.

“Treatment First means building a system that does not leave people cycling between homelessness, emergency rooms, and the criminal justice system,” SAMHSA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher D. Carroll said. “These investments will help states strengthen the infrastructure – partnerships, data, workforce, and recovery supports – needed to connect people with serious mental illness and addiction to effective treatment and support them on a path toward lasting recovery, stable housing, employment, and self-sufficiency.”

In June, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a $4.04 billion Continuum of Care notice. It walked away from the Housing First model, which provided permanent housing with no strings attached. Chronic homelessness climbed 81 percent from 2013 to 2025, despite the number of taxpayer-funded beds increasing 151 percent, HUD figures show.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner called Housing First a failure that “warehoused the vulnerable without results.” Housing alone will not fix a crisis driven by addiction and mental illness, he said.

Kennedy earlier this year announced more than $700 million for related work, of which nearly $100 million went to the STREETS program for homeless people dealing with addiction or serious mental illness. In February, he introduced the $100 million STREETS effort itself, built around continuous contact from the street through recovery, jobs and self-sufficiency.

A federal appeals court this week allowed HUD to forge ahead with funding shifts after lower-court challenges. The department has earmarked $1.3 billion for transitional housing and supportive services.

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YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP: Minnesota’s $2 Million “Anti-ICE Relief Fund” Shut Down After More Than 200 Applications Get Flagged as Fraud

Hennepin County, home of Minneapolis and the epicenter of America’s most infamous welfare-theft machine, just had to shut down a taxpayer slush fund created to “help” businesses allegedly hurt by Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

According to Fox News, the county received approximately 300 applications. More than 200 were flagged for potential fraud, while only 82 applicants were cleared and received roughly $500,000 in assistance.

Officials reportedly discovered applications containing identical, AI-generated language submitted on behalf of different businesses. County investigators also conducted site visits and found that some of the businesses listed on applications did not even exist.

Hennepin County Commissioner Jeffrey Lunde said the county eventually stopped processing applications after officials saw the number of legitimate claims decline.

Lunde said:

“Clearly, fraud and people who want to commit it are still very active, as they do not fear the penalty. Thanks to county staff and our partner, we were able [to] thwart these efforts by devoting more time and effort to tighter oversight, in-person inspections and increased scrutiny. As the fraudsters continue their efforts, we need to ramp up our game as well. This is the new normal for all levels of government in Minnesota.”

The county insists that no taxpayer money was lost to fraudulent applicants because the claims were caught during the review process. However, the scale of the attempted fraud forced officials to terminate the program.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has been asked to review the applications for possible criminal charges. Lunde wants prosecutions and says the legislature may need to tighten the law so that attempting to loot a grant program is a real crime, not a paperwork inconvenience.

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58 Democrats join House vote to grant Trump additional war and tariff powers

Fifty-eight Democrats in the House of Representatives voted with Republicans Wednesday to grant US President Donald Trump additional war and tariff powers, including the authority to put tariffs as high as 100 percent on goods from China and India.

The 58 House Democrats included former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, former Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina and former Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who co-wrote the bill in the House.

The vote is only the latest expression of the fact that the Democrats, far from opposing Trump’s program of global war, support escalating it and criticize Trump for being insufficiently aggressive against Russia.

The majority of House Democrats, who voted against the bill, fully support the sanctions against Russia and Iran, and the ongoing wars but objected to giving Trump additional tariff authority.

The bill is named after the warmongering Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who died suddenly in July after returning from a trip to Kiev. It comes amid a spiraling escalation of the Ukraine war. On Sunday Russian forces struck a passenger train with a drone at Yahodyn station, 2 kilometers from the Polish border, shortly after a train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had left it.

On Tuesday Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced that soldiers of the 18th Engineer Regiment were reinforcing the checkpoints and border guard posts on the Ukrainian border; and on Thursday Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in a provocative speech to parliament, accused Russia of planning drone or rocket strikes on Poland and other countries supplying Ukraine. Early Tuesday an Italian fighter jet flying for NATO shot down a drone carrying an explosive charge over Lithuania, and Poland and Romania scrambled jets against Russian drones near their borders.

The Russian strike was the response to months of NATO escalation: Germany’s lifting of range restrictions on the weapons it supplies to Ukraine, Germany’s agreement in Kiev in May to build “deep-strike” drones jointly with Ukraine, Ukraine’s attacks on oil refineries in Perm and Tatarstan on September 7, and the visit of Johnson and other European officials to Kiev.

The sanctions and tariffs are instruments of the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, and the bill turns them against China and India, two of the largest buyers of Russian crude oil.

It also extends for five years the US sanctions on the energy and arms industries of Iran, which the United States and Israel attacked on February 28 and which US warships are blockading.

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Brussels Is Robbing America Blind — And Someone In Washington Is Letting Them Get Away With It

In recent years, Brussels has conducted a bitter economic war against America’s most successful companies: Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. Brussels uses an array of fines, investigations and even forcing the companies to hand over key technologies in return for exemption from other regulations. Brussels even has imposed a number of very far-reaching rules that are nothing more than a large scale expropriation of their IP. Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon have already had to pay out to the European Union many billions of dollars, not because they failed in any way to come up with better products and services than their competitors, but because Brussels’ draconian rules and regulations are so difficult for them to comply with.

President Trump saw it and said enough.

When on July 24th the US President Donald Trump announced the opening of a Section 301 investigation concerning the campaign of fines and regulation of large tech companies by Europe, he started by criticizing the European Commission’s latest move against Google. In two separate decisions Google has been fined for almost $1 billion for alleged breaches of the Digital Markets Act. The US President called those fines “another example of Europe robbing American companies and, in turn, the American taxpayer”.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer laid out the reasons why a Section 301 investigation into the EU’s fines on Google and other big tech companies is fully warranted. “The European Commission’s practices with respect to Google amount to de facto forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, supported by unfair and unreasonable financial penalties,” Greer said in a statement. He noted that Google’s EU fines alone would total more than two percent of the EU’s annual budget.

More than seven weeks have now passed since Trump gave his Trade people their instructions concerning the EU’s ‘robbing’ of American technology companies.

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SURPRISE! Study Finds Blue States With the Strongest Teacher Unions Also Have the Lowest Reading Scores

Liberals would have you believe that strong teacher unions equate with strong schools and solid results, but a new study found the exact opposite.

Of the states included in the study, blue states with the strongest teacher unions also happened to have the lowest reading scores.

Conversely, red states cited in the study, which give less attention to teacher unions, score much higher.

FOX News reports:

Powerful teachers’ unions share striking link with states struggling to teach kids to read

States with stronger teachers’ unions tend to have weaker literacy performance and have adopted fewer of the policies credited with improving reading outcomes, according to a new analysis from a center-left think tank.

Eight of the 10 states to score among the worst in the Progressive Policy Institute’s (PPI) assessment of early-literacy policies were home to powerful teachers’ unions. Among the top 60% of states in terms of early-literacy policy scores, only four had strong teachers’ unions.

Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Indiana, all Republican-leaning states with weak unions, were among the states with the best literacy outcomes. Maine, New York, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington and Rhode Island, blue states, were among the worst.

The pattern isn’t universal. Maryland, a blue state with a strong teachers’ union, has posted strong reading results, while South Dakota, a red state with a weaker union, has struggled. The differences suggest union strength and party control alone don’t explain states’ reading performance.

It’s kind of amazing, isn’t it?

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