Snopes has a lengthy discussion of claims by F’Elon Musk (DOGE) and Robert “Brainworm” Kennedy Jr. that they found 8M people fraudently on Medicaid. Their conclusion:
These numbers don’t add up to 8 million …
Like almost everything else involving DOGE, the math doesn’t work out.
You can click the link below to read the article:
In her opening statement, Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, noted that under the proposed budget, NIH funds would be cut by nearly $18 billion compared with the previous fiscal year.
“That would have a devastating impact on research into lifesaving cures and treatments,” Baldwin said, warning it would set “back medical innovations by decades.”
Baldwin said that while the hearing was meant to focus on next year’s budget, the proposal provided insight into what Kennedy was doing at the agency now, in fiscal year 2025. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, HHS has cut more than 20,000 jobs and slashed billions of dollars for scientific research as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s effort to reduce the federal budget.
Baldwin questioned the secretary over the department’s withholding funds that were already appropriated by Congress, including thousands of dollars in grants for research on rare diseases, Alzheimer’s and cancer. “We’re not abandoning any lifesaving research,” Kennedy answered. “We’ve cut administrators, we’re cutting waste, we’re cutting duplicative programs.”
The senator also pressed Kennedy about the proposed cuts to NIH and asked whether the lack of funding would slow the development of treatments and cures. “We are the sickest country in the world, so that money has not been well-spent,” Kennedy replied.
A federal judge has paused the Trump administration’s plans for mass layoffs and program closures for two weeks. The decision prevents two dozen agencies from proceeding with cuts deemed illegal without congressional approval. The pending “reductions in force” are part of the administration’s downsizing strategy and may affect hundreds of thousands of employees.
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In her ruling, Judge Susan Illston of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California stated that the government’s attempts to lay off workers and shut down programs threaten essential services. She emphasized that reorganizing federal agencies requires congressional consultation and cannot be solely decided by the president.
Lawyers supporting the lawsuit submitted about 1,300 pages of sworn statements showing how federal cuts have harmed local services.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/unlawful-trump-s-mass-layoff-plan-suffers-blow/ss-AA1F1vV1
- Solicitor General John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to halt nationwide injunctions against Trump policies but said if class-action lawsuits took their place, he would oppose them too.
- Legal experts said if the Supreme Court abolishes nationwide injunctions, Trump could cut his losses by limiting the reach of court rulings that go against him.
As the Trump administration fights to kill 40 court orders blocking some of his most controversial or aggressive new policies, legal experts say the government’s strategy is to break the cases apart, into individual disputes, to delay an eventual reckoning at the Supreme Court.
One called President Donald Trump’s legal strategy a “shell game.” Another said government lawyers were “throwing spaghetti against the wall” to see what sticks.
“Their bottom line is that they don’t think these cases should be in court in the first place,” said Luke McCloud, a lawyer at Williams and Connolly who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. “They are looking for a procedural mechanism that will make it the most challenging to bring these sorts of cases.”
Federal and Virginia state officials are preparing to receive about 60 White South Africans at Dulles International Airport next week, government documents and emails show.
Months after the Trump administration ground U.S. refugee admissions to a halt, the program meant for people fleeing war or political persecution has restarted — but only for one group: White South Africans.
Plans are underway to fly approximately 60 Afrikaners to Dulles International Airport on a State Department-chartered plane Monday, with federal and Virginia officials preparing to receive them in a ceremonial news conference, according to documents and emails obtained by The Washington Post, as well as three government officials familiar with the preparations.
Real refugees need not apply, but South Africa’s fallen racists are welcomed.
President Donald Trump is pushing to have the pharmaceutical industry help fund his tax cuts by requiring drugmakers to lower Medicaid drug prices, according to reporting by Bloomberg News.
Newsweek reached out to the White House by email on Friday afternoon for comment.
Trump targeted drug prices as part of his effort to bring down costs for Americans: He first signed an order that rescinded former President Joe Biden’s executive order that lowered the cost of prescription drugs, but last month signed a fresh order telling the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to take new steps to lower drug costs through competition and market forces rather than through presidential mandate.
https://www.facebook.com/VietVetsforDems/posts/1714394152612496
