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Express Tribune
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
DOGE subcommittee uncovers $2.7 trillion in improper Medicare, Medicaid payments
During a hearing on Wednesday, the Department on Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee revealed that since 2003, the U.S. government has issued a staggering $2.7 trillion in improper Medicare and Medicaid payments, including to individuals overseas who were not eligible to receive them. The subcommittee's findings shed light on the extent of fraud, waste, and mismanagement plaguing the nation's healthcare system. The hearing, titled "The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud," was led by Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The goal of the subcommittee is to investigate how billions of taxpayer dollars have been squandered annually due to improper payments and fraud. Experts in the field provided step-by-step plans for improving the payment systems, closing loopholes, and implementing strategies to eliminate fraud. At a subsequent White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in history, addressed questions about the findings. A reporter asked for the administration's perspective on the DOGE subcommittee's discovery of the $2.7 trillion in improper payments. Leavitt responded, "This is just another example of the fraud, waste, and abuse that DOGE is identifying daily." She also mentioned other instances of government fraud, including Social Security payments sent to deceased individuals and questionable contracts that do not account for the full amount of taxpayer money allocated. She emphasized that President Donald Trump has committed to addressing this issue, a promise that he has worked to fulfill with the support of figures like Elon Musk. On February 11, President Trump and Elon Musk met in the Oval Office to discuss the progress of DOGE's efforts to cut down on government waste. Musk defended the task force's actions, reiterating the need for major changes to curb excessive federal spending. Musk emphasized that Americans voted for such change, and that the Trump administration is delivering on its promises to reduce inefficiency and bureaucracy. The DOGE subcommittee's efforts are part of the broader agenda to root out inefficiency in the federal government, especially in taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid and Medicare. At the hearing, Dawn Royal, a certified welfare investigator, pointed to the role of career bureaucrats in minimizing the significance of fraud and abuse. Royal criticized officials who, for political reasons, downplay the scale of fraud, particularly in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), where only a tiny fraction of the budget is spent on fraud prevention. Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) voiced support for the subcommittee's work and praised President Trump and Elon Musk for bringing a focused effort to tackle government waste. He asserted that the bipartisan fight against waste and corruption was critical for ensuring that taxpayer dollars are used effectively. Several experts testified about measures to improve payment accuracy and reduce fraud. Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government, outlined a three-step plan to improve federal payment systems: implementing identity verification from the outset, eliminating self-certification, and continuous auditing to track payments. Additionally, Royal suggested using modern technology to close loopholes and prevent fraud. She recommended creating a National Accuracy Clearinghouse (NAC) to stop duplicate participation in social welfare programs and allocating funds strictly for fraud prevention and enforcement. The Biden Administration has been criticized for expanding welfare programs without implementing adequate oversight mechanisms, contributing to the escalating problem of improper payments. Stewart Whitson, Senior Director of Federal Affairs at the Foundation for Government Accountability, warned that the failure to address these issues could lead to even greater waste, with billions of dollars still buried under bureaucratic red tape. Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) also criticized former President Joe Biden's handling of federal spending, accusing him of irresponsibly attempting to forgive billions of dollars in federal debt and exacerbate the country's fiscal crisis. Launched in January by President Trump, the DOGE initiative, led by Musk, aims to slash federal spending by eliminating waste and bureaucracy. Since its creation, DOGE has saved over $1 billion by cutting unnecessary contracts. However, the task force has also faced legal challenges from Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates, especially after it gained access to sensitive Treasury Department data. Despite the controversy, supporters of DOGE view its actions as necessary for curbing the nation's mounting debt, which has surged to an all-time high of $36 trillion. As President Trump and Musk continue their efforts to reform government spending, they are determined to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and efficiently.
Politico
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Dems fail to land viral moment at DOGE hearing
The highly anticipated first meeting of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, or DOGE, came and went on Wednesday with scarce political drama. Democrats sought to cast the subcommittee — a complementary effort to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk — as an extension of what they see as a corrupt executive branch plot to destroy the federal bureaucracy. But Republicans largely sidestepped those attacks, arguing they were in the business of eliminating government waste while Democrats had little interest in engaging earnestly on the subject. It was a surprising twist for a panel filled with political firebrands and chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who just a few years ago was stripped of her committee assignments for controversial actions like suggesting she supported the assassination of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And on Wednesday, Democrats seemed at times keen on provoking Greene, known for viral spats and sparring with fellow lawmakers. At one point, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) announced he'd decided to bring a 'dick pic,' after Greene showed explicit images of Hunter Biden in a House Oversight Committee hearing in the previous Congress. Garcia then displayed a photo of 'President Elon Musk.' 'We should in no way be cooperating with House Republicans who want to shut down the Department of Education and destroy Medicare and Medicaid,' said Garcia at the hearing. And Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who last year said during a spat with Greene during an Oversight Committee hearing that her colleague had 'bleach blonde, bad built, butch body,' said Wednesday that Greene's leadership of the DOGE subcommittee was notable, given her absence from a number of past hearings dealing with 'improper payments.' Greene has marketed her panel as a serious partner in Musk's efforts to reduce government waste. On Wednesday, she said her subcommittee would soon release a report with legislative solutions to the problems raised at the hearing, titled 'The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud.' 'This is not a time for political theater and partisan attacks. The American people are watching. The legislative branch can't sit on the sidelines,' Greene said in her opening remarks. She also announced that the subcommittee had finalized a date to hold a hearing on whether the federally-funded public news outlets PBS and NPR are engaging in political bias in their coverage, and convene to discuss the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the administration is moving to dismantle. 'In this subcommittee,' Greene said, 'we will fight the war on waste shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, Elon Musk and the DOGE team.'
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US lawmakers join Trump-Musk government shakeup
Republicans vowed Wednesday to tackle the "stunning" US national debt, as lawmakers began work on President Donald Trump's plan for the most radical downsizing of the federal government in decades. The House Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee will be the legislative arm of tech billionaire Elon Musk's efforts as Trump's right-hand man to slash $1 trillion in wasteful spending. Its first hearing -- "The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud" -- was set to feature testimony from a former FBI agent and the head of a welfare fraud watchdog. "This committee will be laser-focused on bringing full transparency to waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government, and presenting the plans to fix the tremendous problems we expose," chair Marjorie Taylor Greene said in her opening statement. "We, as a country, are $36 trillion in debt. That is such a stunning amount of money. It's absolutely staggering to even comprehend how we as a people, we as a country, found ourselves here." The hearing was convened with government workers staging demonstrations against deep staffing cuts ordered by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Critics say the world's richest man has enormous conflicts of interest as a major government contractor, although Trump claims that his "efficiency czar" has already uncovered tens of billions of dollars in fraud. Republicans have largely backed the DOGE agenda, although funding cuts at the National Institutes of Health have been met with mild dissent. A prominent voice on the party's hard right with a history of bigoted comments, Greene has been brought from the fringes into the center of Republican politics as Trump's influence has grown. - 'Maximally transparent' - The Georgia lawmaker, who was barred from serving on committees in her first two years in office, posted on X ahead of the hearing that "God is washing away bad things and our country is beginning to heal." Democrats were initially open to the concept of DOGE but have soured on Musk over his efforts to dismantle federal agencies, which they say are shrouded in secrecy. "All of our actions are maximally transparent," Musk told reporters Tuesday at the White House, newly emboldened by a Trump executive order giving him a veto over government hiring and firing. "I don't know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization." Trump and Musk are facing multiple legal challenges however as they try to lift emergency orders blocking the dismantling of federal agencies, holds on grants and the firing of government watchdogs. The White House lost an appeal in Boston on Tuesday upholding a decision to block Trump's freeze in federal grants and loans. On the same day, Trump fired an inspector general overseeing USAID, after he filed a report warning that the foreign aid freeze could leave the humanitarian agency at risk of misusing funds. As with all his firings of inspectors general, the move looks on its face to be illegal as Congress is supposed to be given 30 days' notice. Meanwhile the Homeland Security Department fired the Federal Emergency Management Agency chief financial officer and three other FEMA employees for approving payments for migrant housing in hotels. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is in charge of a budget of almost $900 billion, told Axios he plans to welcome Musk and "the keen eye of DOGE" to scrutinize its spending "very soon." ft/mlm
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE subcommittee to hold first hearing focused on ‘war on waste'
WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., will hold its first hearing Wednesday as Congress begins working with the White House on President Donald Trump's plan to reshape the federal government. The new House subcommittee, a partner to billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, could be a crucial legislative tool for Trump's agenda. Greene, who met with Musk and Trump on Monday, said Wednesday's hearing will launch 'a war on waste.' The hearing, fully titled 'The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud,' will feature testimony from a former FBI agent and the director of the United Council on Welfare Fraud. It comes as Democrats and some government workers are protesting massive cuts to the federal workforce and Musk's influence in the White House. Who is running DOGE with Elon Musk? 'DOGE subcommittee members will work with expert witnesses to examine how Congress can assist the president in the effort to stamp out improper payments and fraud,' Greene said in a news release. The hearing follows Trump's claims that DOGE has uncovered tens of billions of dollars in fraud and abuse, blaming bad government contracts. 'We're finding tremendous fraud and tremendous abuse. If I need a vote of Congress to find fraud and abuse, it's fine by me. I think we'll get the vote,' Trump said while speaking to reporters Tuesday alongside Musk in the Oval Office. Musk added, 'The people voted for major government reform, and that's what the people are going to get. They're going to get what they voted for.' As the White House looks to buy out nearly 2 million federal government employees, Trump is limiting federal agencies to hiring one worker for every four who leave. The deadline for federal employees to accept a buyout offer was extended indefinitely Monday as a lawsuit to block the plan continues in court. House Oversight Committee announces 'disclosure' task force The Office of Personnel Management has offered federal workers who resign pay and benefits through September. The White House has called the offer 'generous' and reported that more than 65,000 workers, about 2.5% of the federal civilian workforce, have accepted the buyout. The buyout is part of Trump's aim to reduce the federal workforce and aligns with plans to cut staffing for U.S. aid projects worldwide as part of the administration's efforts to dismantle USAID. Democrats have continued to question the legality of DOGE's actions, including spending cuts and the downsizing of the federal workforce. The moves have sparked protests in Washington, D.C., where thousands of American Federation of Government Workers union members and supporters rallied outside the Capitol, with some holding signs and chanting against Trump and Musk. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Politico
11-02-2025
- Business
- Politico
Marjorie Taylor Greene mum on Musk ahead of first DOGE hearing
Fresh from a White House meeting with Elon Musk, conservative provocateur Marjorie Taylor Greene is preparing to launch her Congressional subcommittee to complement the tech giant's Department of Government Efficiency — and downplayed the task force's drastic spending cuts that are putting thousands of federal employees out of work. "Those are taxpayer-funded jobs. Those only exist because people that pay taxes, their money is being used for grants and all kinds of funding, right? Those aren't real jobs,' the Georgia lawmaker said in an interview Tuesday on the eve of the first hearing from the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, which she chairs. 'Real jobs are manufacturing, construction, all kinds of private businesses,' Greene continued. 'Those are real jobs, and those are the jobs that matter, because they produce income, that produce taxes and revenue for the federal government.' Her comments, which followed a meeting Monday with Musk and Speaker Mike Johnson , could set the stage for her subcommittee hearing Wednesday morning, titled 'The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud.' Greene said it would be the first of about four hearings the panel will convene over the next two months, though declined to preview other topics. 'This is really about improper payments,' Greene said of the panel's mission and mandate. 'We're looking at hundreds of billions of dollars annually … to anyone from dead people to criminal rings that are operating out of foreign countries and the gamut in between." She insisted, 'this isn't really a partisan issue,' and dared Democrats to politicize it. 'If [Democrats] want to come in a hearing and yell about Elon Musk and DOGE — that is trying to save the American people their hard earned tax dollars — let them do it,' said Greene, 'because I can tell you right now, Americans will not be happy with it, and if they want to make that their issue, I'd love to win the midterms.' While it's highly unlikely the DOGE Subcommittee will rise above the political fray, Greene is under some pressure to rebrand herself as a serious legislator in charge of a high profile subcommittee. Four years ago, she was stripped of her committee assignments for peddling dangerous conspiracy theories, and recently some Republicans expressed concern that her position atop the high-profile panel would be a political issue. The DOGE Subcommittee could also ultimately be integral to her brand's rehabilitation: just this month, in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she left the door open to running for Senate or governor. So now, rather than boast of her connections with Musk on Tuesday, Greene refused to discuss the details of her meeting with the billionaire and Johnson. Nor would she engage on questions about her relationship with Musk, his far-reaching executive branch task force and what information she may be given about DOGE's activities.
