1) Will ANYONE Do ANYTHING About Rampant Fraud In Federal Programs?
Seriously. How bad does it have to get? We’ve chronicled on these pages the more than $150 billion in payments to fraudsters who ripped off taxpayers in the Medicaid, PPP, food stamps, and unemployment programs.
So we weren’t surprised, just severely depressed, when we saw this headline from our friends at the New York Post:
The investigators discovered that the fraud soared during the pandemic because the feds and the state “loosened eligibility rules in an already crumbling state unemployment system, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli charged Tuesday.” He says his auditors believe there were billions more in fraud payments the investigators still have not uncovered.
By the way, the New York Governor when all this money was stolen: Andrew Cuomo.
Does anyone remember him? During COVID, the media gushed about Cuomo’s performance. Incredibly, he wants to make a political comeback.
Why was fraud so rampant? The auditors point to a change in the benefit rules under the CARES Act which “allowed claimants under these temporary programs to self-certify their eligibility and wages and required states to make immediate eligibility determinations.”
Pelosi and the Dems in Congress wrote the bill, but Trump deserves a share of the blame for signing it with these super-loose eligibility standards.
Will Republicans who now control the House do anything to chase down the fraudsters and get the money that was stolen from taxpayers back? Will people be put in jail for theft? If they won’t, then they are just as guilty as the Democrats.
Many of our readers and supporters have turned decisively against Donald Trump. Given his behavior and antics since he lost the 2020 election – we understand why. Trump is and always has been his own worst enemy and he may be just too toxic today to win in 2024. There clearly was an anti-Trump factor in the midterm voting that hurt Republicans – though that is somewhat exaggerated.
We don't take sides in political races. We would simply remind people that there is a good Trump and a bad Trump. Tuesday we saw emerge for the first time in a long while the return of the good Trump. Even his fiercest critics will have to acknowledge this his speech was a strong performance – though it went on WAY too long
His message was simple and straightforward. He drew a sharp contrast between the direction of the country when he was president and the dismal direction of the country today. He systematically highlighted the success of his policies – on the economy, education, China, crime, the border, taxes, inflation, energy, the vaccine, the nation’s security, the advancement of Hispanics and blacks, competence, small business, deregulation, America’s standing in the world, and reducing poverty.
The case for Trump can be summarized in one statistic. Under Obama and now Biden one in three Americans have rated the economy as good or great. Under Trump two of three Americans rated the economy as good or great.
Many Republicans would like Trump to go away. That might be best. But the reality is he isn’t going to.
So let’s have a robust and feisty primary season starting about nine months from now. Put all the wannabes on the big stage and see how they perform. We love Ron DeSantis (though we think that a coronation is extremely unwise). We love Kim Reynolds. We love Kristi Noem. We love Tim Scott and Glenn Youngkin. What a field of powerhouses and what a contrast to the Democrats where the cupboard is truly bare.
Here’s the most important point. It is fair game for the growing ranks of never-Trumpers to attack Trump’s behavior and his polarizing antics and the chaos that he (and the never-Trump media) engenders.
But it is vitally important for the future of our country and our prosperity that the spectacular success of Trump’s “put America first” policies – as laid out on Tuesday night – be heralded and defended.
Whoever the Republican nominee turns out to be should pledge, as far as policy is concerned, to pick right up where Trump left off.
Nancy Pelosi has hinted she’ll likely decide this week on her political future, but her allies are already trying to sell colleagues on having her stay another term as Democratic leader.
Meanwhile, GOP Senators renominated Mitch McConnell as their minority leader.
If the 82-year-old Pelosi stays, it will highlight the growing gerontocracy of American politics.
If she retires, her replacements could be 83-year-old Majority Leader Steny Hoyer or 82-year-old Whip Jim Clyburn.
Then you have President Joe Biden who is 80 - and looks and acts every day of it.
Donald Trump at 76.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is the youngster at age 71.
4) Parents Are Handing "Woke" Educators Dunce Caps At The Polls
As parents have become increasingly angry over public education – on issues ranging from lockdowns to “woke” indoctrination and falling test scores – school board elections have become a focus of the discontent.
Incumbents are increasingly retiring under pressure or losing re-election. In 2018, 61% of school board seats were filled by incumbents. Last year, that number fell to 51%, and it dropped lower this year.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, where a parental revolt helped catapult Glenn Youngkin into the governor’s mansion, conservatives scored a big victory.
Conservative Tiffany Polifko unseated a liberal incumbent and says she plans to use her new position to aid a grand jury investigation of the district that’s being led by state Attorney General Jason Miyares.
Ryan Gidursky says that his 1776 Project PAC helped Florida Governor Ron DeSantis win six new school board races in the state. That gives the Florida governor a record 25 wins and five losses in races so far this year.
Other grassroots victories include Oklahoma and Arizona, where strong conservatives were elected state superintendents of public instruction. Parental rights groups also won a majority on the Ohio State Board of Education.
Republicans may have seen their “red wave” become a bathtub swell this year, but in nonpartisan school board races, the candidates who opposed lockdowns and supported reform in curriculum scored important victories.
5) Sam Bankman-Fried Admits He Conned Liberal America
We previously reported our suspicions that the apparent Ponzi schemer used "ethical altruism" as a front for naive admirers in media and policies. Now he has removed all doubt:
No word yet on whether Democrats will return their $40 million in political donations to Bankman-Fried's victims. They should.
