Free Republic

DAVID BROOKS, NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, I'm not sure it was wreckage. There was wreckage if you're at NIH. There are wreckage at certain agencies, but the guy only saved $65 billion out of a multitrillion-dollar budget. So, as a budget matter, you would not say he had a big effect, but he did manage to destroy NIH and USAID. And the USAID one is the one I haven't gotten over. And so there's folks at Boston University who count, how many people have died because of what DOGE did at USAID? And USAID was a very ill-managed organization. That's...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has refused to bail out Los Angeles, which is facing a $1 billion deficit, in his latest budget proposal, as the state itself faces a massive $12 billion deficit. The Los Angeles Times reports: Deeper in the budget proposal, no salvation was found for L.A. And at a news conference Wednesday, Newsom said flatly that he did not plan to provide cash to help dig the city out of its budget hole. The city is facing a $1-billion shortfall due to inflated personnel costs, higher than ever liability lawsuit payouts and below-expected revenues. “The state’s...

Minnesota Democrats are doubling down on their radical agenda, pledging to “fight until the very end” to provide free health care to illegal immigrants, on the backs of hardworking taxpayers. As everyday Minnesotans struggle with rising premiums, longer wait times, and an overstretched health care system, progressive lawmakers are prioritizing illegal immigrants over legal residents. Dozens of Democrats from Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) rallied outside the state House chamber on Friday to oppose a new policy that would end free health care for undocumented adult immigrants by year’s end, while still allowing coverage for children to continue. Protesters held signs...

It’s no secret Joe Biden’s team spent its final days shoveling money out the door, and in ways designed to limit Donald Trump’s ability to claw it back. Officials working under Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright have now completed a review of the Loan Programs Office (LPO)—the government entity that brought you Solyndra— and the extent of the shenanigans is remarkable. Figures and documents provided to me show a loan free-for-all: More than $90 billion showered on entities in a matter of months, a lot of it to companies of questionable taxpayer value. The highlights of DOE’s review: Unprecedented...

The scamdemic is the gift that keeps on giving, and it’s only a matter of time before we the taxpayers are called upon to settle the student loan bill for robots too.According to a report from SFGate, “ghost” students are on the rise at colleges across the nation, particularly in California, a dramatic increase seen after much of the education sector transitioned to remote learning during 2020.Here’s the story:When the pandemic upended the world of higher education, Robin Pugh, a professor at City College of San Francisco, began to see one puzzling problem in her online courses: Not everyone was...

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) provided an update to one of the biggest scams uncovered by Elon Musk’s team on Wednesday evening. DOGE says it has saved approximately $105 billion in a “combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings,” and other workforce reductions. The Democrats are angry that DOGE is saving American taxpayers money, so they devised a scheme to stop Elon Musk and his team. There are currently nearly a dozen lawsuits challenging DOGE over its authority, data access, and privacy laws. There is also a secret resistance...

On Friday President Trump released a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year that would take a chainsaw to social, environmental and education programs. Some of the sharpest cuts are directed at housing programs that are meant to serve the poor, housing insecure and unhoused. In California, millions are served by these funds and state and local governments depend on them to operate affordable housing, rental assistance, homeless service, planning and legal programs. In a letter to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, the president’s budget director, Russel Vought, laid out $163 billion in annual spending cuts coupled with “unprecedented increases”...

Elon Musk & DOGE reveal Department of Education officials were using TAXPAYER DOLLARS to rent out STADIUMS and CAESAR'S PALACE for parties.. BLATANT THEFT. @elonmusk : "As soon as we started requiring them to upload receipts, all this spending STOPPED." ANOTHER reason to abolish the DoE! ... Everyone in governmenr does that. They have all of these conferences where they go and drink and eat and talk to each other and have little “panel discussions” to regurgitate information everyone always knows. I figured everyone knew about this grift? The community colleges in California would do 1-2 week retreats in Hawaii...

While media pundits and other high-profile Democrats have relentlessly fearmongered about President Trump’s plans to “gut” entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicaid, it turns out Gavin Newsom was quietly doing exactly that. From Kristen Hwang at CalMatters just yesterday: 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. In recent weeks, federal officials have signaled that...

Three Key Takeaways: Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered a disturbing 800% increase in Social Security numbers issued to noncitizens under the Biden administration, raising concerns about voter fraud and government benefits being accessed by illegal aliens. The investigation revealed a system where illegal aliens could easily receive work authorization and Social Security numbers without interviews or identification, allowing them to access taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid and potentially vote in U.S. elections. Musk emphasized that the Biden administration’s border policies have fueled human trafficking networks, with cartels profiting from transporting migrants into the U.S. under dangerous...

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WASHINGTON — Elon Musk on Tuesday called for the arrest of leaders of “fake” organizations that receive federal funds — saying they represent a politically connected “uniparty” that’s engaged in “money laundering” of taxpayer resources. The Department of Government Efficiency chief’s call for legal action comes as he spearheads efforts to trim annual federal spending by $1 trillion to halve the deficit. “With respect to the non-governmental organizations, these sort of fake NGOs, I think there needs to be a number of arrests,” Musk said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Five.” “These are fake charities [run by] mostly...

Democrats run an economy of 'Grifterism,' where Billionaires, Productives, and Dependents fuel a system designed to keep the ruling class in power while stifling real economic freedom.I am a political junkie and a political conservative. Like so many conservative political junkies, I spend a good portion of my waking hours trying to understand what the words and actions of Democrats actually mean. Like the Politburo of the former Soviet Union, the words of Democrats often bear little resemblance to the actions their words embody. “Equity” is an excellent example, as when Democrats say “equity,” they really mean highly inequitable policy...

Here are two examples of how Democrats stole tens of billions of dollars from taxpayers.This is why they hate DOGE so much.Original: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/03/28/ev-charging-stations-slow-rollout/Archive: https://archive.ph/k6JkEBiden’s $7.5 billion investment in EV charging has only produced 7 stations in two yearsMarch 29, 2024President Biden has long vowed to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the United States by 2030. Those stations, the White House said, would help Americans feel confident purchasing and driving electric cars, and help the country cut carbon pollution.But now, more than two years after Congress allocated $7.5 billion to help build out those stations, only 7 EV charging...

President Donald Trump has begun his war against Democrat-dominated, left-wing California, according to the New York Times, enacting six policies against the state in the space of just 24 hours last week.The Trump administration waited to take on Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), initially, because of the devastation of the January 7 wildfires in Los Angeles.However, that did not stop Newsom from spending $50 million to fight Trump, even while asking for federal aid.The Times reports on what happened next — on Thursday, March 26:The U.S. Education Department announced early in the West Coast morning that it would challenge a major...

Do you want your taxpayer dollars funding studies on preventing pregnancy in “transgender boys” or HIV stigma in Thailand? Fortunately, Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary also considers that a waste, so he’s cutting numerous idiotic woke studies. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Trump’s new agency heads have uncovered billions of dollars of egregious fraud and waste, including the previously unknown agency whose employees lived “like kings” and the Social Security funding for 150+ year olds. Now HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is looking to streamline the massive, unwieldy, unconstitutional, and harmful federal healthcare agencies. It’s time...

In a stunning revelation, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced the discovery of nearly $5 trillion in unaccounted-for government spending. The massive government oversights are due to a previously optional financial tracking field linking US Treasury payments to specific budget line items. For reference, under Elon Musk’s leadership, DOGE aggressively pursues the elimination of government waste and promotes transparency in federal spending, a key priority of President Donald Trump’s administration. The executive order signed on President Trump’s first day in office is a temporary White House initiative with an 18-month mission; the department has already uncovered massive...

According to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday, the Trump administration is looking into turning off the federal funding pipeline to one of its most controversial recipients, the euphemistically named Planned Parenthood, as they investigate where the money is actually going.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom's Department of Finance on Wednesday notified state lawmakers that California will need a $3.44 billion loan to cover costs associated with the state's Medicaid program known as Medi-Cal. The letter did not specify why exactly the program fell short on funds. While experts note there are many factors that go into Medicaid costs, some are pointing to the money the state spends providing health insurance to undocumented people.

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — In one week’s time, Gov. Ned Lamont went from vetoing nearly $3 million in funding for nonprofit organizations to signing a revised bill that provided the exact same funding – only by a slightly different mechanism.The $3 million in funding that the governor vetoed and then ultimately signed will go to an array of nonprofit organizations including Planned Parenthood, various LGBTQ+ groups around the state and agencies providing services for immigrants and refugees.