Tag: welfare

California Expands Digital ID Programs for Public Services, Despite Privacy Concerns

California is accelerating its push into digital identity, with officials launching new pilot programs designed to streamline how residents access public services. But while the state promotes the convenience and efficiency of these efforts, the broader implications for privacy and data control remain a growing concern among advocates for digital rights.

Jonathan Porat, California’s chief technology officer, said the state’s Department of Technology is moving ahead with new collaborations following initial efforts that included the mobile driver’s license launched last fall and a single sign-on pilot through Login.gov tied to transportation benefits.

That project, run through the Cal-ITP platform, lets eligible residents access transit discounts using a contactless payment system linked to their identity. Seniors, veterans, and others were able to verify eligibility for reduced fares without presenting physical documentation. According to Porat, the project’s success in Monterey County and Santa Barbara led the state to explore expanding the system to more than a dozen other local transit agencies.

But while the state touts these pilots as progress toward modernizing access to benefits, the increasing reliance on digital credentials has sparked important questions about surveillance, data sharing, and long-term risks.

California’s approach differs from other states that have focused on digital IDs primarily for age or identity verification. Porat explained that the state wants to use these tools to confirm eligibility across a range of public services. “We’re proud as a state to have [a mobile driver’s license] as well, but we’re really thinking about, how can we digitize the way that we validate residents’ identities and eligibility for different programs,” he said.

That vision includes broader partnerships, including with federal agencies like the VA and CMS. “What we’re doing now is trying to expand the breadth of those different benefits programs,” Porat said. “So we started by looking at a couple of simple things, like age-related discounts, and now we’re going so far as to have agreements with the federal VA and CMS, the group that manages Medicare and Medicaid, so that if you receive disability, if you are above a certain age, if you have a certain status, you can get those discounts automatically, just by paying with your wireless payment.”

Keep reading

Gavin Newsom Scales Back Plan to Provide Illegal Aliens With Free Healthcare as California’s Financial Crisis Deepens

California Governor Gavin Newsom is scaling back his ludicrous pledge to offer free healthcare to all illegal aliens in the state.

His 2025–26 budget proposal, released Wednesday, includes a freeze on new Medi-Cal enrollments for adults without legal immigration status and imposes a $100 monthly premium for those already enrolled.

The freeze would begin in 2026, affecting new applicants over the age of 19.

According to Newsom’s office, the change will not impact those currently enrolled or those receiving limited emergency or maternity coverage.

The new premium would apply starting in 2027 to all adults with what the administration calls “unsatisfactory immigration status,” a term that includes both illegal aliens and certain legal residents ineligible for federal Medicaid.

Newsom’s office says the revised policy is necessary due to a $16 billion shortfall in state revenue, driven in part by ballooning Medi-Cal costs linked to his earlier expansions.

Rather than his own failings and the mismanagement of Democratic authorities, Newsom cited Trump’s decision to impose tariffs as justification for the shortfall.

“California is under assault,” Newsom said. “The United States of America, in many respects, is under assault because we have a president that’s been reckless in terms of assaulting growth engines.”

However, Newsom insisted that he was not cancelling the program altogether.

Keep reading

GOP Congressman Humiliates a Grandstanding AOC as She Plays to the Cameras While Asking Questions About Medicaid – AOC Then Completely Snaps

Far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) lost it early this morning after a GOP congressman humiliated her by calling out her grandstanding tactics during a committee hearing.

While the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing entered the early morning hours as part of its marathon mega bill markup, AOC attempted to disassemble the GOP’s plans to reform Medicaid by asking witnesses a series of leading questions. Of course, she wanted to play to the cameras at the same time.

When she did finally act like a professional, Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) took notice and roasted her.

“Um, in terms of some of the exemptions, pregnancy is covered, correct?” AOC asked.

“May I interrupt? I’m glad you’re addressing us instead of addressing the camera,” Weber quipped.

AOC then repeated her question about pregnancy, and the witness answered that pregnancy was covered. AOC then tried to ask a gotcha question about abortion laws.

“Given the Dobbs decision and the fact that many women and the fact that many women in many states are forced to…” she began before Weber cut her off.

“Okay, what about miscarriage?” AOC asked.

“Reclaiming my time. I just want to make the point that we’d like for you to address the Republicans and let’s have a dialogue this way & not through a camera,” Weber said.

“But, but, I’m just asking about a miscarriage,” AOC whined.

“The gentlelady is out of order!” Weber shouted.

A short time later, AOC started grandstanding again after getting some backup from Rep. Yvette Clarke.

“There are 13.7 million Americans on the other side of that screen there. Hello, hello,” Ocasio-Cortez stated, waving to the camera. “I’m talking to you because I work for you. They deserve to see what is happening here because there are plenty of districts, including Republican ones, where 25 percent of your constituents are on Medicaid, 40 percent of your constituents are on Medicaid.”

“Will the gentlelady yield?” Weber asked.

Upon hearing this, AOC finally snapped completely.

“I will not yield because it was a terribly disrespectful comment, and I will not yield to disrespectful men!” she whined.

Keep reading

Report: Biden Admin Paid $271 Million In Unemployment Checks To Millionaires In Two Years

Good news for millionaires and billionaires: They are currently eligible for unemployment benefits, whether they need it or not. That has been true since 1964 when the Department of Labor determined unemployment is for all eligible workers no matter their income level.

In 2022, The Biden Administration paid unemployment compensation to 5,773 people earning $1 million or more, with nearly $58 million going to out-of-work millionaires. It is an average of nearly $10,000 per person.  

In 2021, a COVID quarantine year with extra dough baked into unemployment, 14,972 people earning $1 million or more received unemployment compensation. The Biden Administration spent nearly $214 million keeping millionaires fed, paying an average of $14,200 each.

(As the Federalist previously reported, 2021 and 2022 were also banner years for unemployment fraud, in which fraudsters including prisoners and dead people placed multiple claims.)

Combine the years and individuals earning more than $1 million annually received more than $271 million in unemployment during the first two years of the Biden Administration.

These numbers are part of a report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), prepared for Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the Senate DOGE Caucus chair. CRS looked at tax returns and counted individuals who earned over $1 million and also received unemployment.

“Our nation’s safety net shouldn’t be strained by subsidizing the lifestyles of the self-sufficient,” Ernst said in an email. “Able-bodied millionaires shouldn’t expect handouts paid for by overtaxed and overworked Americans. The freebies for free-loading fat cats are over.”

Being fired from a job can be devastating. Getting turned down for unemployment benefits even more so, especially when living paycheck-to-paycheck at $30,000 with nothing in savings. It happens. Not everyone is eligible for the unemployment safety net, which is a fraction of your pay before being separated from employment.

When income stops, it sure would be nice to have $1 million in income from another income stream. Maybe you own some rental properties, have good investments, or earned enough to save. If you only had an even $1 million, it would be just over $83,000 a month.

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading

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.”

Keep reading

California Democrat Lawmaker Wants to Decriminalize Welfare Fraud Under $25,000

Welfare fraud under $25,000 in California could be decriminalized due to Senate Bill 560, which was introduced by State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D) in February.

The bill would decriminalize welfare fraud under that amount in the state for administrative errors, Fox News reported on Monday.

According the outlet’s Bill Melugin, “Smallwood-Cuevas represents a large chunk of Los Angeles County, including Mar Vista, West LA, Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights, Century City, Playa Vista, and part of downtown LA.,” he wrote in a social media post on Monday.

Smallwood-Cuevas told Fox the state’s safety net should help residents and not keep them in poverty. She also wrote in a recent social media post, “This bill is about keeping families out of the criminal justice system from making administrative errors on raising the threshold for welfare fraud prosecutions.”

The bill is set for a hearing on May 5. The Legislative Counsel’s Digest regarding the bill reads:

Existing law establishes criminal penalties for welfare fraud, defined as willfully and knowingly, with the intent to deceive, by specified means, including a false statement or representation, obtaining or retaining aid through designated public social services for oneself or for a child who is not in fact entitled thereto, as specified. Existing law makes any person who knowingly uses, transfers, sells, purchases, or possesses CalFresh or federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in any manner not authorized, as specified, guilty of a misdemeanor or felony depending on the face value of the benefits.

This bill would delete the provision that establishes criminal penalties for an attempt to commit welfare fraud. The bill would delete criminal penalties for welfare fraud when the total amount of aid obtained or retained is above or below $950, and instead make welfare fraud when aid was obtained or retained in the total amount of $25,000 or more punishable by specified imprisonment in a county jail, by a fine, or by imprisonment and fine.

“In Los Angeles County, field investigators handle 15,000 to 20,000 fraud cases or referrals, according to the Department of Public Social Services,” Monday’s Fox article said.

Keep reading

Biden Era Was the Ultimate Application — and Utterly Predictable Failure — of the Cloward-Piven Strategy

There was a time in the mid-1960s when two left-wing Columbia University professors — Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven — enjoyed a brief run of media celebrity by espousing a strategy for Democrats they believed could force the creation of an American welfare state based on a guaranteed annual income.

In a widely read article in the era’s liberal flagship publication, Nation Magazine, the professors laid out their strategy as applied to the welfare state to illustrate the road to achieving all of the American left’s ultimate economic, political and social goals:

“Widespread campaigns to register the eligible poor for welfare aid, and to help existing recipients obtain their full benefits, would produce bureaucratic disruption in welfare agencies and fiscal disruption in local and state governments. 

“These disruptions would generate severe political strains, and deepen existing divisions among elements in the big-city Democratic coalition: the remaining white middle class, the white working-class ethnic groups and the growing minority poor.

“To avoid a further weakening of that historic coalition, a national Democratic administration would be con-strained to advance a federal solution to poverty that would override local welfare failures, local class and racial conflicts and local revenue dilemmas.

“By the internal disruption of local bureaucratic practices, by the furor over public welfare poverty, and by the collapse of current financing arrangements, powerful forces can be generated for major economic reforms at the national level.” 

Put simply, Cloward-Piven said the way to force radical socialist reform of capitalistic America was to overwhelm the existing system by introducing so many participants that it collapses, thus creating political chaos, which Democrats then promise to end by enacting comprehensive and fundamental systemic changes. 

Keep reading

USDA Imposes New Verification Rules on Food Stamps to Tackle Exploitation by Illegals

The Trump administration is taking a hardline stance against illegal immigrants exploiting food stamps, issuing strict new guidance to state agencies to ramp up identity and immigration verification.

On Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Acting Deputy Under Secretary John Walk directed states running the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to tighten the screws on fraud.

The Department of Agriculture’s new rules demand states use more reliable documents to confirm identity, crack down on fake Social Security numbers, and fully utilize the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system—provided free by DHS. States are also urged to adopt stricter identification processes and conduct more in-person interviews.

A memo from Acting Deputy Under Secretary Walk noted, “By law, only United States citizens and certain lawfully present aliens may receive SNAP benefits. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193) established that “aliens within the Nation’s borders not depend on public resources to meet their needs.” SNAP is not and has never been available to illegal aliens.”

“To ensure that tax dollars do not fund SNAP benefits to illegal aliens or other ineligible aliens, State agencies should carefully examine their identity and immigration status verification practices and make necessary enhancements.”

Keep reading

California’s Broke Medicaid Program Has Been Spending on … Homeless Housing

Medi-Cal, the State of California’s version of Medicaid, has been spending on extraneous programs such as housing while running up a deficit so extreme that the state has had to borrow over $6 billion to save it.

As Breitbart News reported last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration had to seek $6 billion in loans to keep the program from collapsing, partly due to the cost of covering illegal aliens, which he did last year.

Now, CalMatters.org reveals that the federal government is cracking down on Medi-Cal and other Medicaid providers that have been using money to support “rent assistance” and “medically tailored meals”:

In 2022, California made sweeping changes to its Medi-Cal program that reimagined what health care could look like for some of the state’s poorest and sickest residents by covering services from housing to healthy food. But the future of that program, known as CalAIM, could be at risk under the Trump administration.

…

The moves align with a narrower vision of Medicaid espoused by newly confirmed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Dr. Mehmet Oz, who said during his swearing-in ceremony that Medicaid spending was crowding out spending on education and other services in states with the federal government “paying most of the bill.”

“This one really bothers me. There are states who are using Medicaid — Medicaid dollars for people who are vulnerable — for services that are not medical,” Oz said.

President Joe Biden allowed California and other states to “experiment” with Medicaid funding — and California spent itself into near-insolvency. The Trump administration is cracking down, insisting that Medicaid spending be restricted to medical expenses — not items like housing for indigent patients.

Keep reading