Tag: welfare

Senate Rejects Big, Beautiful Bill Measure to Remove Illegal Aliens from Medicaid

In a 56-44 vote on Monday, the United States Senate rejected a measure on President Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill that would have removed millions of illegal aliens from Medicaid.

As Breitbart News reported, on Friday, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that “various immigration enforcement policies cannot” be included in Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, and that several “immigration enforcement and other provisions” would need to receive 60 votes in order to be included in the bill.

This includes:

  • A mandatory minimum fee of $1,000 for anyone applying for asylum
  • A mandatory minimum fee of $100 to request continuance in immigration court
  • A mandatory minimum fee of $250 to apply for the diversity visa lottery, $400 to process diversity visa application
  • A $5,000 bond for sponsors of unaccompanied alien children
  • Language expanding expedited removal of criminal noncitizens

MacDonough also “determined that some of the megabill’s Medicaid provisions,” would not be “eligible for approval via the simple-majority gambit,” according to the New York Post.

Keep reading

Supreme Court Greenlights States to Cut Off Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood in Major Win for Pro-Life Advocates

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday paved the way for states to block Medicaid funding from going to abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

The high court’s decision, which comes after years of legal wrangling, affirms the authority of individual states to determine how taxpayer dollars are allocated — and who gets excluded.

In a landmark 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic that individual Medicaid recipients do not have the right to sue states under federal law for excluding abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs.

The Court’s decision, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, reversed a ruling from the Fourth Circuit and solidified the state of South Carolina’s authority to remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid network—without fear of federal lawsuits from individual patients or abortion activists cloaking themselves in civil rights statutes.

This case arose after South Carolina decided in 2018 to terminate Planned Parenthood’s participation in its Medicaid program, citing a state law that bans the use of public funds for abortion.

Abortion advocates predictably sued under 42 U.S.C. §1983, claiming the state violated a supposed “right” under the Medicaid Act’s “any-qualified-provider” provision.

Justice Gorsuch clarified that this provision does not confer individually enforceable federal rights. It is a directive to states, not a free pass for left-wing groups to weaponize the courts every time a state takes a stand for life.

“The decision whether to let private plaintiffs enforce a new statutory right poses delicate questions of public policy. New rights for some mean new duties for others. And private enforcement actions, meritorious or not, can force governments to direct money away from public services and spend it instead on litigation,” Gorsuch wrote.

He continued, “The job of resolving how best to weigh those competing costs and benefits belongs to the people’s elected representatives, not unelected judges charged with applying the law as they find it.” 

Keep reading

Trump DOJ Sues Tampon Tim Walz and Minnesota for Providing Free and Discounted Tuition for Illegal Aliens

The Trump Administration is taking the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz, and his state to court for prioritizing foreign nationals above Americans.

The Department of Justice issued a press release a short time ago announcing that they had filed a complaint seeking to overturn Minnesota laws that provide free and discounted in-state tuition for illegal aliens.

This violates federal law, specifically 8 U.S.C. § 1623(a), which explicitly prohibits states from granting in-state tuition to illegal aliens unless all U.S. citizens—regardless of residency—are given the same benefit.

“Today, the United States is challenging laws in Minnesota that provide reduced in-state tuition — and in some cases, free tuition — for illegal aliens. These laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens, who are not afforded the same privileges, in direct conflict with federal law,” the press release reads.

“The Department of Justice has filed the complaint in the District of Minnesota. This challenge builds upon a recently successful lawsuit against the state of Texas on a similar law.”

Keep reading

Rare Earth Startups Say Without Subsidies and Support, US Can’t Shake China’s Control

Without a federally supported market and strategic reserve stockpile, the United States will remain reliant on China for critical minerals and rare earth refining, experts told a House panel during two-plus hours of testimony on June 24 that exposed how vulnerable the global economy and the nation’s defense is to the whims of the Chinese Communist Party.

Even with swift deregulation, permitting reform, and rapid recycling ramp-up, they warned, it will take years of government support to untether domestic manufacturing from a supply chain China has strategically built for decades.

“Over the years it’s taken for us to do nothing, the Chinese have dominated. They and their government have been extremely supportive of their ability to create world dominance in this, and it was part of a strategy,” U.S. Critical Materials Executive Director Harvey Kaye said during the hearing before the House Small Business Committee.

This glaring vulnerability is confirmed by the Congressional Research Service’s April 2024 report documenting the nation’s 100 percent import reliance for 12 of 50 “most critical” minerals, and more than 50 percent import reliance for another 29.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries January 2025 report paints an even scarier picture. Of 31 critical minerals needed to produce everything from iPhones to F-35 fighter jets, the United States cannot domestically source any and can commercially refine only one, beryllium.

China, meanwhile, is the lead source for eight and the near-exclusive provider of 17 minerals needed for a rapidly electrifying economy. China processes two-thirds of the world’s lithium and cobalt, supplying 60 percent to 90 percent of the world’s processed minerals.

Keep reading

Senate parliamentarian strikes SNAP reform from Republican megabill

The Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough rejected provisions in the Republicans’ megabill related to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) reform.

The House version of the bill contained language to bar illegal immigrants from receiving SNAP benefits, which MacDonough ruled against. 

The provision that would require states to fund a certain percentage of SNAP benefits based on those states’ error rates in delivering aid was also eliminated.

The Senate is currently revising the version of the bill that the House previously passed.

Keep reading

As Congress struggles to cut spending, states expose Medicaid fraud on steroids

Medicaid for millionaires. Jaw-dropping swindles. Bureaucrats who aren’t checking patients’ eligibility.

As Congress struggles to find spending cuts in a bloated federal budget, a growing number of states are exposing the breathtaking extent of fraud, waste and abuse inside the government’s primary medical welfare program for the poor. 

Arizona became the latest state to unveil failures, as Senate Majority Leader Janae Shamp, House Majority Leader Michael Carbone, and other GOP lawmakers released a report showing that 130,000 of the 388,000 state residents who applied for Medicaid last year were not verified, suggesting up to $6 billion a year in Medicaid fraud.

“When we’re talking about cutting fraud, waste and abuse, that is exactly where we start,” Shamp told Just the News.

The report showed only 24% of Arizonans who applied for the assistance were vetted, and of those people who did get vetted properly, 34% weren’t supposed to be accepted, but they got the Medicaid benefits anyway.

When asked if she believes that Arizona’s Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs would consult the Republicans who led the effort to investigate, Shamp told Just The News, “I always want to believe in the good that, yes, we can work across party lines, and we can figure out how to do this collectively together, because it’s the citizens of Arizona, the taxpayers of Arizona, that are bearing the brunt of this fraud.”

“I have sent a letter to her office, and I’m asking for a bunch of questions to be answered and to find out what it is that the governor’s office is prepared to do with her agency that is directionless, leaderless…no transparency [and] totally unaccountable,” she continued. 

Arizona’s Medicaid problems follow similar issues found in states like Ohio where a Bloomberg Law investigation revealed that state health departments and Medicaid contractors often fail to detect or ignore blatant fraud, costing taxpayers billions annually. 

Congressional leaders are targeting an estimated $50 billion in yearly Medicaid waste, as states and contractors prioritize approving claims over scrutinizing questionable expenditures. 

Keep reading

Democrat Governors Are Rolling Back State-Funded Healthcare for Illegal Aliens – Why is the Left Not Protesting Them?

Some liberal Democrat governors are starting to roll back state (taxpayer) funded healthcare for people who are in the country illegally. Why is the left not protesting them? Could it be simply because the left gives Democrats a pass? Do they even know this is happening?

Under Gavin Newsom in California, the state is so broke that they are being forced to do this because there’s simply no money for it and the program came in costing billions of dollars more than people were told.

The same thing is now happening in Minnesota under Tim Walz and Illinois under JB Pritzker, all far left Democrats.

NBC News reports:

Democratic governors seek to roll back state-funded health care for undocumented immigrants

A trio of states with Democratic governors viewed as potential 2028 presidential candidates have taken steps in recent weeks to freeze or cut government-funded health care coverage for undocumented immigrants.

Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Tim Walz of Minnesota have largely attributed the proposals to budget shortfalls stemming from original plans to expand health care to immigrants without legal status.

But the moves also occur against the backdrop of broader debate within the Democratic Party over how to handle immigration, an issue that dragged it down in the last election and that President Donald Trump and the GOP have continued to try to capitalize on…

The latest development came in Minnesota on Tuesday, after both chambers of the Legislature passed a bill to end state-funded health care for undocumented adults…

Newsom’s plan in his 2025-26 budget has called for freezing enrollment for undocumented adults to receive the full scope of the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal…

Keep reading

Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Boost Subsidies for Rich Farmers

It should be clear by now that, despite the assurances from President Donald Trump and his allies in government, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month—not only won’t reduce the federal budget deficit but will in fact increase the nation’s debt load by $2.4 trillion over the next decade.

Given that Trump came into office promising to cut federal spending, it’s worth looking at how Trump’s bill does the opposite of what he and other Republicans say it does. And one of the more egregious things it does is boost corporate welfare for wealthy farmers.

“The government provides agricultural subsidies—monetary payments and other types of support—to farmers or agribusinesses,” says the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). “While some subsidies are given to promote specific farming practices, others focus on research and development, conservation practices, disaster aid, marketing, nutrition assistance, risk mitigation, and more.”

“In reality, this support is highly skewed toward the five major ‘program’ commodities of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice,” according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental advocacy organization. “Despite the rhetoric of ‘preserving the family farm,’ the vast majority of farmers do not benefit from federal farm subsidy programs and most of the subsidies go to the largest and most financially secure farm operations.”

The new bill will only make the problem worse: According to an analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the bill “would increase agriculture-facing programs spending by $56.6 billion over the next decade,” of which “$52.3 billion is tied to enhancements in the farm safety net.”

That “farm safety net” comprises most agricultural subsidy spending in any given year. It includes price and revenue guarantees for certain crops, ensuring farmers earn a set minimum on staples like corn and soybeans, as well as crop insurance assistance, covering up to 60 percent of farmers’ insurance premiums in the event of price declines or poor harvests.

The programs are a bad deal for taxpayers—indeed, for anybody but the very wealthiest agribusinesses. “Just in the last 10 years, crop insurance agents and the 14 companies the USDA allows to sell and service crop insurance policies…received almost $33.3 billion from the federal Crop Insurance Program,” EWG Midwest director Anne Schechinger wrote in 2023. “In some years, up to one-third of crop insurance payments are made to companies and agents, not farmers.”

Keep reading

New York hospital staffers resign amid allegations state defrauded Medicaid in financial scheme

Several hospital staffers at the Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) have submitted their resignations effective in June amid investigations to examine if the State of New York has been defrauding Medicaid with what one lawmaker called “a large financial scheme” involving matching payments for hospitals totaling more than $1 billion.

The allegations that New York might be cheating Medicaid first surfaced a few months ago in civil litigation and in a New York Post column. State legislators increased pressure for an investigation and resolution, and staged a rally at the State Capitol.

Claims going back 20 years

A hospital staffer who had first-hand information but chose to remain anonymous told Just The News that the hospital completed an extensive review and assessment of all books and records last summer, and brought questions to an outside law firm.

The staffer said they received a legal opinion and, after reviewing documents filed by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) to CMS in June 2024, they learned that NYS [New York state] halved the hospital’s DSH [Disproportionate Share Hospital] funding year after year for two decades. Allegedly, more than one billion dollars were steered away from NUMC.

They said they spent over a decade working with New York state for over a decade and neither the NYSDOH nor the governor’s office have accepted initiatives to meet with them over the past three years.

In December 2024, it was reported by The New York Post that NUMC was suing New York for $1.06 billion, alleging the state has defrauded the hospital of financial resources over the past 20 years.

The staffer told Just the News that 80% of patients at the NUMC are ensured by Medicaid and Medicare. NUMC is the only public hospital in the county, and a large percentage of its 275,000 patients are low income, uninsured, as well as on Medicare and Medicaid. The hospital includes a nursing home and jail infirmary, Long Island’s only burn unit and its largest inpatient psychiatric treatment center.

A spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office has denied these allegations, stating that they are “false claims.”

Keep reading

Migrants In The UK Are Receiving £1 BILLION PER MONTH In Welfare Benefits: Report

Migrant households are siphoning almost £1 billion in welfare benefits every month in Britain, a report has claimed.

The Telegraph highlights government figures from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) which reveal that registered households with at least one foreign national in March received £941 million in universal credit.

The welfare scheme allows low-income or unemployed people in Britain to claim government subsidies 

The figure just three years ago was £461 million, meaning it’s on course to double in just half a decade.

It’s hardly surprising given the massive increase in mass migration to the country under the so called Conservative government.

2023 saw migration climb to a record of 906,000. The latest data shows that 948,000 people came to Britain in 2024.

Migrants are eligible to apply for universal credit as soon as they acquire residential or refugee status in the Britain. 

The report notes, however, that the total cost to the taxpayer of foreigners is way higher, when healthcare, education, and housing are factored in.

A recent study conducted by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) discovered that housing asylum seekers, a great deal of whom are in the country illegally, has increased to approximately £4.7 billion a year.

Keep reading