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| AP |
Like a drunkard pledging to drink one less pint of whiskey a year, President Joe Biden is promising to rescue Americans from COVID fraud.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) aptly labeled COVID fraud as “the greatest theft of American taxpayer dollars in history.” Congress and Presidents Donald Trump and Biden sought to spend COVID-relief money as quickly as possible while asking few if any questions.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz derided the “safeguards” for one of the most plundered programs: “Apply and sign and tell us that you’re really entitled to the money.”
Almost $200 billion in federal unemployment benefits were swindled, delivered to practically anyone in the world who filled out a form and concocted a false name. “Overseas organized crime groups flooded state unemployment systems with bogus online claims,” siphoning off millions of dollars, NBC News reported. Prison inmates, drug gangs and foreign racketeers easily plundered the program.
According to Team Biden, federal intervention is necessary to deter state-government bureaucrats from sending unemployment benefits to Nigeria.
Biden will soon propose legislative reforms to “require states to use the tools already at their disposal to identify fraud.” If only Washington’s Best and Brightest thought of that earlier!
In his State of the Union Address last month, Biden promised, “Every dollar we put into fighting fraud, the taxpayer will get back at least 10 times as much.” If that’s the case, wouldn’t fraud prosecutions pay for themselves?
A hefty “Sweeping Pandemic Anti-Fraud Proposal” Fact Sheet reveals ambitions for the White House:
For a mere $1.6 billion, Team Biden would “Formalize ‘Gold Standard’ meetings” that bring together White House and agency officials “so everyone could hear all concerns and issues at the same time, before major implementation started.” Instead of a high-falutin’ new initiative, why not simply guarantee fancy donuts for all attendees of those weekly meetings? --->READ MORE HERE
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| AP |
President Biden asked Congress Thursday for $1.6 billion to crack down on COVID relief fraud — only two days after he nominated a new cabinet secretary who oversaw billions of dollars’ worth of that very fraud while California’s top labor official.
As part of its request, the White House asked for $600 million to crack down on “criminal syndicates who preyed on Americans during a time of unprecedented health and economic emergency;” another $600 million to “invest in better prevention of identity theft and all forms of major fraud involving public benefit programs;” and $400 million to redress “harms to innocent victims” of the fraud.
“While the initial pandemic legislation in 2020—as well as the American Rescue Plan passed in 2021—were essential to mitigating the health and economic impact of this unprecedented pandemic, there must be a bipartisan response to punish those who engaged in major and systemic fraud against the American people during a time of national emergency, to put in place stronger fraud and identity theft prevention going forward, and to hold harmless those Americans who were innocent victims of identity theft,” a fact sheet put out by the Biden administration stated.
On Tuesday, Biden announced he would nominate deputy labor secretary Julie Su to replace outgoing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh — even as Su caught flak while California’s labor secretary for botching pandemic handouts for millions of residents.
Su, 54, who served as the Golden State’s top labor official from January 2019 to July 2021, admitted during her final year in office that California’s Employment Development Department may have distributed up to $31.4 billion in unemployment funds to fraudsters.
“There is no sugarcoating the reality,” Su said in January 2021. “California did not have sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
Audits of Covid-19 Aid for Schools Find Millions of Dollars Misspent
Conservative group wins legal victory in case over teachers union's $12.5M COVID loan
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
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