WRITE OF CENTER
ENTER I have written 121 columns in this space over the past 11 years. My last one, “Let’s Get On With It,” set a new record for positive reader feedback. I appreciate the kind words and encouragement from our loyal readers; thanks, everyone.
I struck a chord with the great Iowa campaign advertisement from Senator Ernst, which I quoted in the column. It’s worth repeating.
In my 54 years of Republican politics, it was the greatest political advertisement I have ever seen. She said, “I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm. Send me to Washington, I know how to cut pork. Washington is full of big spenders, I’ll make them squeal.”
Well, now we can certainly hear the loud squealing in Washington.
The Trump administration is laser-focused on identifying government waste, fraud, abuse and overreach. Congress is working in tandem, to do the will of the taxpayers.
The Senate inquired to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), asking for a list of recipients of American tax dollars sent to Ukraine. At first, USAID claimed the information was classified. Eventually, they were forced to provide it. And no wonder they were trying to hide it. As it turns out, money was spent sending Ukrainian models and designers on junkets to New York City, London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week and South by Southwest in Austin.
Another Senate inquiry revealed that USAID had provided financing for bat studies involving coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. If the CIA and FBI are correct that the Covid virus likely originated from a lab leak at Wuhan, USAID may have had a hand in it. With your tax dollars.
Sure enough, USAID employees are also resisting the review of agency records by DOGE. They are afraid, and maybe embarrassed, that we will learn they spent $2 million promoting tourism to Lebanon, where the State Department warns against traveling due to risk of terrorism and kidnapping. Or that they spent millions on irrigation ditches in Afghanistan, which resulted in doubling of poppy cultivation for opium production.
The sound of squealing can be heard as lawsuits are filed, trying to prevent DOGE from accomplishing its work. The next time you go to the ballot box, remember who is sticking up for you, the taxpayer. It is the Republican party. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) last spring estimated the “ federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.” This is public information from a government agency.
The GAO also estimated that 11-15% of unemployment benefits during the pandemic were fraudulent, totaling between $100 billion and $135 billion. Some went to foreign gangs, prisoners and hackers.
The Health and Human Services Department last year estimated $85 billion in “improper payments” for Medicare and Medicaid.
The inspector general of the Treasury department listed the top tax credit programs with fraudulent payments. They estimated the fraudulent payment rate for the earned income tax credit was 33.5%. The fraud rate for the ObamaCare net premium tax credit was 26%. The fraud rate for the child tax credit was 14.5%. And the fraud rate for the education tax credit was 31.6%.
Before the Republicans took control of Washington last month, nobody was doing anything about this outrageous waste of taxpayer dollars.
Under the Biden administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid New York City to the tune of $377 per day ($137,605 per year) for sheltering illegal immigrants. That is twice as much as the average American household spends in a year!
American taxpayers are fed up with the waste and fraud, and our Republican officials are standing up for the taxpayers, not the government bureaucrats.
It’s a safe bet that the squealing will continue. Probably even louder. But responsible people know that America is headed for a catastrophe with the federal government spending binge.
It has given us a bloated bureaucracy, which now must be downsized quickly. It cannot be done with a fine touch or a scalpel. It takes a chain saw and a woodchipper.
Not a pleasant sight, but we have no time for pleasantries. Let’s roll.
Scott S. Kramer is former Chairman of the Kendall County Republican Party.
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