Free Republic

Dr. Mehmet Oz, newly sworn in as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has exposed billions of dollars in fraud, waste, and abuse plaguing America’s healthcare safety nets. Appearing on America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer, Dr. Oz laid out a clear and urgent mission: protect the most vulnerable — not enrich bureaucrats, fraudsters, and corrupt insiders. “Right now, my main focus, without any question, is to wage a war on fraud, waste, and abuse — because that’s what’s required. All hands-on deck,” Dr. Oz said.

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction to block the Department of Government Efficiency from further access to sensitive personal information at the Social Security Administration. The order blocks the agency from granting DOGE access to systems containing personally identifiable information including Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, tax information and family court records. A federal judge has once again blocked Department of Government Efficiency staffers, operating inside the Social Security Administration, from accessing sensitive personal data of millions of Americans. U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction to block the so-called...

California will soon reopen its e-bike voucher program, offering eligible residents up to $2,000 toward the purchase of an electric bicycle. The state-funded program is designed to help lower- and middle-income Californians replace car trips, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut commuting costs. Incentive funds can be applied as a discount at the time of purchase toward the cost of an eligible e-bike and related accessories. To be eligible, applicants must be at least 18 years old and have a current and valid California driver’s license, AB 60 license, or state ID. Additionally, participants must meet income requirements, with household...

In 1974, Congress created the Legal Services Corporation to connect lower-income Americans involved in civil disputes with free legal help. The law that established the agency stipulated that authorization for its funding would expire in 1980, when lawmakers were required to vote on whether to keep it alive. They never did. Still, Congress has funded LSC every year since. In fiscal 2025, its 51st year, LSC’s 135 employees will spend 95% of its now $560 million annual budget paying legal groups to represent Americans in cases such as eviction, domestic violence, and disputes over government benefits, according to Ron Flagg,...

EU funding of non-governmental organisations is "too opaque", auditors found on Monday in a report set to further fan a heated political tussle over the financing of environmental groups. The European Union awarded about 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion) to a plethora of NGOs between 2021 and 2023, but public information about who got the money and how it was used is patchy, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said. "EU funding for NGOs is too opaque and suffers from a lack of transparency," said Laima Andrikiene, the report's lead auditor. "We are not talking about peanuts here," she added,...

Nearly 2,000 scientists, engineers and researchers penned an open letter this week to President Donald Trump's administration, calling for a stop to its "assault" on science. The letter was signed by elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, a congressional chartered organization that provides independent analysis and helps inform public policy decisions. "We are speaking out as individuals. We see real danger in this moment," the letter said, in part. "We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry. We are sending this SOS to sound a...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is canceling a year-old museum dedicated to the EPA’s history — citing its $315-per-visitor cost to operate. The museum is located on the ground floor of the environmental agency, but recorded very little foot traffic, despite its prime location just a block north of the Smithsonian’s Natural History and American History museums on the National Mall. “The scarcely visited museum cost a whopping $4 million taxpayer dollars to build in accordance with Smithsonian standards and more than $600,000 annually to operate,” an EPA official said. “It had less than 2,000 external visitors between May...

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...

At DOGE.gov, the merry elves of DOGE regularly post what they’ve been doing. The actual, rather than rhetorical, transparency is shocking. In its volume and breadth, the outright fraud, theft, incompetence and arrogance is as jaw-dropping as it is disgusting. Let’s review a few of those posts for the savings and insights they provide. Graphic: DOGE X ScreenshotNormal Americans would imagine anyone applying for government grants would have to be very specific indeed about what they intended to do with those billions. One would also imagine they would have to prove those billions would be of direct benefit to America...

🚨 #BREAKING: Elon Musk just exposed the federal government spent almost $1 BILLION on a short survey asking whether or not people like National Parks This is disgusting. “We routinely encounter a waste of a billion dollars or more. Casually. This 10 question survey could’ve been done with Survey Monkey for $10,000. The government was being charged almost a billion dollars for that.,” Elon said. Wow. Full interview: https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1905405372921184443

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. Promoting financial integrity and operational efficiency are critical responsibilities of the Federal Government. The Federal Government processes trillions of dollars annually in disbursements to individuals, businesses, and organizations, and in receipts from taxes, fees, and other payments to finance daily and long-term Government operations. These transactions flow into and out of the United States General Fund (General Fund), which might be thought of as America’s bank account. In Fiscal Year 2024, $33.9 trillion...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s sweeping federal layoffs aren’t just wreaking havoc on tens of thousands of employees across the country. Lawmakers in both parties are warning the cuts will harm the government’s ability to recruit young people out of college — as well as highly skilled candidates from the private sector — causing a ripple effect that could be felt for years or even decades. “The recruiting challenge they’re creating for themselves is enormous,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., whose state is home to hundreds of thousands of federal workers, said of the Department of Government Efficiency’s...

After Donald Trump won the presidency again, Rebecca Carlson was counting on this being the year things turned around for her 1,300-acre farm in northern Michigan. The farm has been in her family for generations but has struggled over the past several years amid the rising cost of fuel, fertilizer and other operating expenses. Then, last year, bad weather wiped out much of her crop. But the return of Trump, she thought, would help reverse things. Her farm had been awarded a grant worth $400,000 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help pay for the costs associated with hiring...

BREMEN, Maine (AP) — Commercial fishermen and seafood processors looking to switch to new, lower-carbon emission systems say the federal funding they relied on for this work is either frozen or unavailable due to significant budget cuts promoted by President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. The changes are designed to replace old diesel-burning engines and outdated at-sea cooling systems and are touted by environmentalists as a way to reduce seafood’s carbon footprint. Decarbonization of the fishing fleet has been a target of environmental activists in recent years. That is far less than agriculture, but still a significant piece of...

WASHINGTON - At NASA headquarters in Washington, just a mile from the U.S. Capitol, employees returned to an infestation of cockroaches and some are working in chairs with no desks, according to two people familiar with conditions there. In a private chat, staffers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services likened the hunt for desks in some regional offices to "The Hunger Games," the popular series of novels and films where young people must fight to the death in a government-sanctioned contest. And at an Internal Revenue Service office in Memphis, Tennessee, tax assessors sharing a training room are unable to...

Every morning, one federal employee wakes up and wishes she had not. She has lost 20 pounds and says she is traumatized. Another employee, an Iraq War veteran with PTSD at the Department of Veterans Affairs, says he has gone from loving his work to considering taking his life. A third is struggling to sleep and has stress headaches, fearing the loss of a job he once thought was guaranteed as long as he met his targets. The three are among a growing number of federal employees who say their mental health is suffering as President Donald Trump's administration seeks...

A resurfaced 2011 video reveals former President Barack Obama launching a "Campaign to Cut Waste," strikingly similar to the current Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative to eliminate government inefficiency. In the video, Obama emphasizes the need to reduce wasteful spending, highlighting the appointment of former President Joe Biden to lead the effort, saying that “nobody messes with Joe.” This initiative aimed to increase government accountability, reduce unnecessary costs, and promote fiscal responsibility echoes what the Trump administration is currently trying to do. Elon Musk recently shared a 2011 video featuring Obama promoting his initiative, "Campaign to Cut Waste," which...

When Kajol contracted tuberculosis in January, USAID kept her alive. Now she and her family are in danger again after the Trump administration ordered most US aid spending to end. "You ask people on the street, they will say yeah, it's the US, they are the ones that are keeping it [tuberculosis] in control," said a director of a USAID project in Bangladesh. "Bangladesh was USAID's largest programme in Asia," says Asif Saleh, executive director of the non-profit BRAC organisation. "In terms of its impact, particularly in the healthcare sector, it has been massive. In 2024, Bangladesh received $500m in...

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif) warned "Trump is provoking the folks who depend on the government taking care of them to rise up and strike back. By breaking the covenant between them and the government they've relied on their whole lives he's put them in a desperate situation where their only option is to fight back." "Just think of the single moms who need money to take care of their children," Waters urged. "The retirees waiting for their Social Security checks to put food on the table. The government employees who depend on their paychecks to support themselves and their families....

Universities across the U.S. have announced hiring freezes, citing new financial uncertainty as the Trump administration threatens a range of cuts to federal contracts and research grants. Some have announced layoffs. Johns Hopkins University said Thursday it is eliminating more than 2,200 workers because of a loss of funding from USAID. Some employees are in Baltimore but most work in 44 other countries in support of the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school and an affiliated nonprofit organization. Some schools already have shelved projects because of the cuts, which have been delayed temporarily by a court challenge....