Comedians Joe Rogan and Shane Gillis trashed communism on Rogan&#8217;s podcast Thursday — then argued in the same breath that Americans should get free healthcare, with Rogan calling billionaire wealth &#8220;the problem with capitalism.&#8221;
Gillis said free healthcare &#8220;would be a good move&#8221; during the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBH4F5a6zAA&amp;t=10697s">episode</a> — and argued that supporting it does not make someone a communist. Rogan agreed. The two were joined by fellow comedians Mark Normand and Ari Shaffir.
&#8220;Communism is the gayest sh*t ever,&#8221; Gillis said. &#8220;Somebody needs to look into how gay communism is.&#8221;
&#8220;But isn&#8217;t it crazy that it&#8217;s making a comeback?&#8221; Rogan asked. &#8220;It always does. It&#8217;s a cycle.&#8221;
&#8220;The problem is if we could not call it communism if we get free healthcare,&#8221; Gillis added. &#8220;That would be a good move. We&#8217;re calling everybody communists. Free healthcare is cool. We should have that. That&#8217;s not communism. Communism is no private property.&#8221;
Rogan agreed, saying, &#8220;We should treat the whole country like it&#8217;s a community. If you have a community, would you want the sickest person to f*cking die, who could be very valuable if you could take care of them, if you have the resources to take care of them? You should take care of them.&#8221;
&#8220;This is the problem with capitalism, this is the reason people turn on all these billionaires,&#8221; Rogan added. &#8220;They turn on them because [they say], &#8216;Why do you have so much when people have so little?&#8217; But it&#8217;s because it&#8217;s the game, it&#8217;s the game that they&#8217;re playing, and you&#8217;re playing the game to — you&#8217;re just not playing it at that level.&#8221;
Normand then pushed back a little on Rogan&#8217;s statement.
&#8220;But again, these rich people pay a lot [in taxes] and give a lot of services,&#8221; Normand said.
&#8220;There&#8217;s that, but also the services, the amount of money they get, is all going to corrupt people that are funneling it into their own bank accounts. That&#8217;s the problem with it all,&#8221; Rogan replied.
Free healthcare of the sort Rogan and Gillis described already exists across the developed world, with mixed results. In Canada, where taxpayers fund the system, the median wait for a family doctor&#8217;s referral to treatment was 28.6 weeks in 2025 — the second longest on record — according to the Fraser Institute. Nearly 6 million Canadian adults have no regular family doctor at all, a survey by St. Michael&#8217;s Hospital and the Canadian Medical Association found. In England, the National Health Service backlog stood at roughly 7.1 million cases this spring, and the health service has not met its 18-week treatment standard since 2016.
Rogan, who describes himself as politically independent, endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the 2020 Democratic primary and endorsed President Donald Trump on the eve of the 2024 election. Sanders even endorsed one of Rogan&#8217;s healthcare takes last year.
&#8220;I think healthcare 100% should be socially funded. I think that Medicare and Medicaid — having programs where people who are hurt can get an operation, and it&#8217;s not going to bankrupt them for the rest of their life,&#8221; Rogan said in March 2025, adding, &#8220;It should be a part of our agreement to take care of each other as a community, that we chip in money for what people would think of as socialist positions.&#8221;
&#8220;Joe Rogan is absolutely right about this,&#8221; Sanders said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Joe Rogan is absolutely right about this. <a href="https://t.co/xIvMSjARWD">https://t.co/xIvMSjARWD</a>
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) <a href="https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/1906405502046597253?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Joe Rogan/Shane Gillis

Joe Rogan, Shane Gillis Agree Communism Is ‘The Gayest Sh*t Ever’ — But ‘Free Healthcare Is Cool’

Bernie Sanders

Communism

Healthcare

Joe Rogan

Medicaid

Medicare

Shane Gillis

Socialism

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This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
Today, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Chris Pope warns against unwieldy entitlement expansion, arguing that the tailored nature of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security has kept America more prosperous than Europe, without sacrificing care for the neediest among us.
The piece is adapted from Pope&#8217;s forthcoming book, <a href="https://manhattan.institute/book/the-american-way-of-welfare-providing-for-those-who-cant-provide-for-themselves">The American Way of Welfare: Providing For Those Who Can&#8217;t Provide For Themselves.</a> As the title suggests, this is not a book that denigrates welfare recipients or rambles on about the dangers of big government. This is serious policy analysis, the goal of which is to chart a better, healthier, and more affordable future for Americans. — Tim Rice
***
After 250 years, the United States remains a nation unlike any other — particularly when it comes to the role of government. Whereas Europeans turn first to the state to assure their welfare, Americans expect the government to step in only when they cannot provide for themselves.
This approach deserves some credit for America’s superior economic performance. But it has also proven to be more effective at aiding those in need.
Americans’ everyday political fights obscure an underlying ideological consensus. In his 2012 State of the Union address, Barack Obama told Congress: “I’m a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: that government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.”
Yet, America has drifted away from the principle set out by Lincoln. Entitlement expenditure is increasingly dominated by Social Security and Medicare, whose benefits go disproportionately to the middle class, despite greatly exceeding prior payroll tax contributions. Proposals for a Universal Basic Income, Medicare for All, and Universal Free Childcare would altogether abandon the targeted approach that has yielded success for America.
Socialists have rarely found favor at the ballot box in the United States. Their schemes are obviously inefficient, and even partially implementing them would disrupt a vast array of cherished freedoms. Making workers provide for others who could provide for themselves would be widely viewed as unjust and would require tax increases, which politicians understand would provoke a fierce voter revolt. The nation’s entitlements therefore tend to be limited to filling specific unmet needs.
Why is this not the case in Europe? Until the mid-20th century, it was. The continent’s publicly funded entitlements were largely reserved for the poor. But two world wars brought widespread destruction, foreign conquest, and hyperinflation. These devastated private savings and insurance arrangements — creating a need for public assistance which extended across social classes. With normal democratic politics suspended, universal, publicly funded health and retirement schemes were established, which prevented the reemergence of privately financed systems upon the return of peace.
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This left European countries with much broader welfare states than the United States. In 2023, public spending accounted for 49% of GDP in the European Union, compared with 39% in the United States. The difference is largely due to the scale of middle-class entitlements, rather than levels of assistance for the poor, which are similar. In 2023, EU countries spent 12% of GDP on public pensions, compared with 7% in the United States.
Europe’s larger entitlements serve less to improve standards of living than to crowd out private provision for healthcare and retirement. This leaves the continent’s healthcare systems underfinanced and without such broad access to cutting-edge medical treatment. It also deprives European countries of significant pre-funded retirement savings, which enable Americans&#8217; pensions to grow through investment rather than being threatened by demographic change.
The more entitlements are expanded beyond the poor, the more taxes must be increased beyond the rich. Whereas the richest American households pay a larger share of their income in tax than those with incomes below the median, in European countries the poor typically bear a higher average tax rate than the rich. Net of taxes, the United States redistributes more than any other developed country to households with incomes below the median.
The merits of America’s targeted welfare state are clear in comparison with Denmark — a wealthy nation often cited as the model for broad welfare eligibility. Although the poorest quintile of working age Danes obtain benefits worth twice as much as their American counterparts; this is largely offset by the much higher taxes they owe. As this aid also serves to deter employment, these poorest Danish households earn less than their American counterparts — and so have lower disposable incomes, after accounting for taxes and transfers.
Improving the focus of entitlement programs could allow more to be done to assist the needy, while reducing the tax burden on enterprise and employment. Congress should allow younger workers to forego future Social Security benefit increases in return for lower payroll taxes and permit them to borrow from past contributions when they are unable to work. To rein in the cost of healthcare, legislators should empower employees to switch to more cost-effective coverage by extending the tax-exempt purchase of insurance to plans that individuals buy for themselves.
Americans from both parties believe that the government should only provide for people who can’t provide for themselves. That principle has served America well, and the nation’s public policy would be greatly improved if it adhered more consistently to it.
***
Chris Pope is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of <a href="https://manhattan.institute/book/the-american-way-of-welfare-providing-for-those-who-cant-provide-for-themselves">The American Way of Welfare.</a>
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Senior Caucus Rally in Minnesota. Seniors rally to stop the 100 Days of Destruction of president Trump.

Keep America Exceptional — Keep Welfare Small

Entitlement Reform

Europe

Medicare for All

MI x DW

Herbert Leon Kimble, 60, was arrested in the Philippines after failing to appear for his sentencing hearing in August 2024, according to federal officials. His capture marks the second arrest from the FBI’s new “Most Wanted Fraudsters” list in just over two weeks.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Kimble had been on the run since 2024 after orchestrating a $1.2 billion scheme from 2014 to 2019.
“In just over two weeks, this is the second Most Wanted Fraudster arrested on the FBI’s list led by Vice President Vance and the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud,” Patel posted on X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
In just over two weeks, this is the second Most Wanted Fraudster arrested on the FBI’s list led by Vice President Vance and the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.
Herbert Leon Kimbel was apprehended in the Philippines and is now back in the United States, on the run… <a href="https://t.co/9ju6cnEfFX">pic.twitter.com/9ju6cnEfFX</a>
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) <a href="https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/2068051952525520968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/most-wanted-fraudsters/herbert-leon-kimble">Kimble</a> had <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/most-wanted-fraudsters/herbert-leon-kimble/download.pdf">pleaded guilty</a> in 2019 to multiple federal offenses, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, health care fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, making false claims, and offering kickbacks and bribes.
Prosecutors said Kimble <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/fbi-captures-12b-medicare-fraud-fugitive-philippines-second-arrest-wanted-fraudsters-list">operated</a> a health care fraud scheme that generated more than $1.2 billion in Medicare charges and affected thousands of beneficiaries, many of them elderly. Authorities said the operation used call centers to steer patients toward medically unnecessary orthopedic braces.
The case puts a face on the kinds of large-scale fraud federal officials say they are trying to root out. Authorities say elderly beneficiaries were pushed toward unnecessary medical equipment, taxpayers were left with more than a billion dollars in charges, and Kimble fled before he could be sentenced.
Patel said the FBI remains committed to carrying out President Donald Trump’s directive to crack down on fraud and protect taxpayer dollars.
Kimble’s arrest comes after federal officials announced the apprehension of <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/most-wanted-fraudsters/said-abdullahi-ereg/download.pdf">Said Abdullahi Ereg</a>, 47, who was wanted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Ereg was the first person on the list to be taken into custody.
Vice President JD Vance said Kimble’s capture was tied directly to the creation of the Most Wanted Fraudsters list.
“Our message is simple,” Vance <a href="https://x.com/JDVance/status/2068059922294542472">wrote</a> on X. “If you defraud the American people, we will find you and we will bring you to justice.”
“Kimble preyed on the elderly for years, costing taxpayers over a billion dollars,” Vance continued. “The FBI catching Kimble is a direct result of the task force’s partnership with the FBI to create the Most Wanted Fraudsters list.”
Vance said authorities had been unable to capture Kimble for months, but that the Philippine government helped locate him after the Justice Department published its list.
The arrest comes months after the Justice Department announced the creation of a National Fraud Enforcement Division to support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, led by Vance. The task force was launched to investigate and recover fraudulent spending in programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Kimble fled to the Philippines rather than face accountability in the United States.
“Fleeing the United States does not mean you can flee justice,” Blanche <a href="https://x.com/TheJusticeDept/status/2068069402109423726">wrote</a> on X.
“Instead of facing accountability for his $1.2 billion Medicare fraud crimes in the United States, Kimble fled to the Philippines hoping to escape justice,” Blanche continued. “That plan failed.”
Blanche said the FBI has now apprehended two fraudsters from its recently unveiled list in just two weeks, adding that there are “more to come.”

FBI Director Patel And Eastern District U.S. Attorney Nocella Holds News Conference On Major Illegal Sports Gambling Schemes

FBI Captures Fugitive Mastermind Behind $1.2 Billion Medicare Scam

One Of FBI’s ‘Most Wanted Fraudsters’ Caught Overseas After Alleged $1.2 Billion Medicare Scheme

kash patel

Medicare Fraud

Most Wanted

Entitlement reform is about to become a hot-button issue, again, due to imminent fiscal shortfalls.
And right now the politics don’t look great for Americans under 40. According to recent <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/social-securitys-finances-are-getting-worse-americans-dont-know-how-hard-choices-will-be">polling</a> by the Cato Institute, 89% of senior citizens would support raising taxes on younger workers in order to maintain their Social Security benefits. Now consider that the <a href="https://voteathome.org/new-report-on-primary-voting-highlights-path-to-increase-voter-participation/">median</a> primary voter is 65 years old.
Gen Z <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025/2024-presidential-election-voting-registration-tables.html">votes</a> at much lower rates than older Americans, especially in <a href="https://theharvardpoliticalreview.com/gen-z-voter-barriers-2024-election/">midterms</a>. Worse, many Zoomers don’t even know how Social Security works. Half think their payroll taxes are either saved for them in a personal account or invested in a trust fund on their behalf.
In reality, Social Security is a <a href="https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/social-security-trust-fund-myth">pay-as-you-go program</a>. That means today’s beneficiaries are funded through taxes paid by younger workers, today. While retirees say they “paid in,” those dollars were spent long ago. Social Security’s mythology has obscured the economic trade-offs it requires: between the incomes of younger workers and the retirement lifestyles of seniors.
For decades, Social Security spending has gone in one direction: up, up, and up, on <a href="https://epicforamerica.org/federal-budget/epic-explainer-discretionary-v-autopilot-spending/">autopilot</a>. As a result, it now accounts for <a href="https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-does-the-us-spend-on-social-security-is-it-sustainable/">over</a> 22% of the federal budget, costing nearly $1.6 trillion per year. That makes it the single biggest item in America’s federal budget, and it’s <a href="https://www.pgpf.org/article/top-10-largest-budget-functions/">not close.</a> If you add up all spending on seniors in the federal budget, it’s about <a href="https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/p/2026-04-01-how-federal-spending-is-distributed-by-age-group-in-fy2025/">$2.7 trillion</a> annually. We spend six times as much on senior citizens, the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/over-65-congratulations-you-own-the-economy-5acea4c4">wealthiest demographic,</a> as we do on children and young adults.
Congress has made no major changes to Social Security since 1983, when President Ronald Reagan signed a bipartisan bill that saved it from imminent collapse. Contrary to today’s facile notion that entitlement reform is “a third rail,” Reagan signed bipartisan legislation that cut Social Security and Medicare spending in 1983, in addition to raising taxes. He won 49 states the very next year (when the economy jumps 7% in a single year, they let you do it).
Since Reagan, no president has been able to change the course of Social Security. Bush and Obama both talked about it. Neither got it done.
Something must change. The Social Security Trust Fund (technically it’s the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund) is projected to run out in late 2032. That’s just six years from now. It means senators elected or re-elected in the November 2026 midterms will confront this crisis within their upcoming terms.
And that’s not the only crisis on the horizon. Medicare Hospital Insurance is <a href="https://www.cms.gov/oact/tr/2026">projected</a> to run out in 2033. Chinese President Xi Jinping has directed the Chinese military to be able to strike Taiwan by 2027, though this does <a href="https://news.usni.org/2026/03/19/china-not-committed-to-2027-taiwan-invasion-u-s-intel-report-says">not</a> necessarily mean China will attack then. And the United States has been so occupied with <a href="https://americanmind.org/salvo/what-is-total-boomer-luxury-communism/">transferring</a> wealth to senior citizens that it forgot to match its defense production to its national security strategy. And that means significant production shortages of <a href="https://www.heritage.org/defense/commentary/chinas-naval-buildup-exposes-us-shipbuilding-gaps-and-fleet-weakness">ships</a>, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/rebuilding-us-missile-inventory-multiyear-project">missiles</a>, and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/the-u-s-wants-to-break-chinas-drone-dominance-heres-where-it-will-struggle-39e69e18">drones</a>. America faces a rapidly complicated geopolitical situation, yet is maintaining <a href="https://econofact.org/u-s-defense-spending-in-historical-and-international-context">historically</a> low defense spending.
Making this all more intractable is America’s demographic collapse. We have fewer and fewer younger Americans <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/ratios.html">supporting</a> more and more older Americans. And this will get worse, impacting America’s ability to fund its entitlement programs — the fertility rate is falling <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/low-falling-fertility-means-social-securitys-funding-problems-are-worse-expected-0">faster</a> than the Social Security Trustees seem to think.
This will all come to a head, and soon. The U.S. must either significantly cut the growth trajectory of Social Security and Medicare spending or dramatically raise taxes. (Or some combination of benefit cuts and tax hikes).
There is no way to finesse our way out of this. It’s far too late to “privatize” Social Security, and any such plan would <a href="https://debtdispatch.substack.com/p/debt-digest-the-cassidy-kaine-social">dramatically</a> raise the national debt, making America’s fiscal problem worse, not better. And while AI promises to accelerate economic growth, excessive government regulation, grassroots backlash, and early demands for Universal Basic Income all cast doubt on the notion that AI will save us from the consequences of our own government spending.
By law, when the Social Security and Medicare trust funds run out, the programs’ spending will be cut significantly (by over 20% for Social Security and over 10% for Medicare Part A). But Congress is unlikely to allow these cuts to happen, given the political realities we have discussed.
American senior citizens know what they want: retirement benefits that keep going up forever, paid for by younger workers. Meanwhile, younger people don’t even know their own interests. Or what threatens them. Even among Americans under 30, 47% would protect current retirees’ benefits even if that means higher taxes on younger workers like them.
Expect more of the same. At least until America’s fundamental imbalance, between elderly power and youthful ignorance, changes.
America did not begin as a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gerontocracy-America-Hoarding-Power-Wealth_and/dp/0374607648">gerontocracy</a>. Thomas Jefferson was just 33 years old when he drafted the Declaration of Independence. Alexander Hamilton was around 20 in July 1776, but he was up north <a href="https://armyhistory.org/major-general-alexander-hamilton/">serving</a> as a captain in a New York artillery company.
With respect to America’s founders, however, if taxation without genuine political representation was a <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/colonial-life-today/early-american-economics-facts">problem</a> back in 1776, it is a much larger problem now.
***
Russ Greene is Executive Director of the Prime Mover Institute and the <a href="https://americanmind.org/salvo/what-is-total-boomer-luxury-communism/">coiner</a> of the term “Total Boomer Luxury Communism.”

Senior woman’s hands counting cash us dollars at home

The Boomer Ponzi Scheme Robbing Americans Of Future Prosperity

Boomers

DW Opinion

Gen Z

Social Security

After a bombshell Daily Wire investigation into waste, fraud, and abuse tied to the government-funded home health care industry, the Trump administration moved on Wednesday to freeze over a billion dollars’ worth of spending and is warning states to root out fraud or pay the price.
The White House fraud task force <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-halting-medicare-enrollments-new-home-healthcare-hospice-providers-2026-05-13/">announced</a> on Wednesday morning that not a single new home health care company would be enrolled in Medicare while the Trump administration probes the program. Around <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vance-led-task-force-cuts-home-health-hospice-providers-suspected-fraud.amp">$1.4 billion</a> in funding for home health care and hospice providers has been paused. 
“Widespread fraud has gone on for far too ​long. But under the Vice President&#8217;s task force we are finally putting a stop to the massive scale fraudsters ripping off the ​American people once and for all,” said a spokesman for Vice President JD Vance. 
 The announcement comes days after Daily Wire reporter Luke Rosiak <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/medicaid-millionaires-how-the-feds-pay-immigrants-billions-to-hang-out-with-their-families">published a series of stories</a> documenting how Ohio spent a billion dollars on home health care in 2024. Home health care services can include things like doing “homemaking” and “chores” for family members. 
Vance, who runs the fraud task force, is set to warn states to crack down on fraud or risk losing federal Medicaid funding, the Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-jd-vance-medicaid-fraud-40e9e78e">reported</a>. The federal government provides over 60% of Medicaid funding for most states, and the Trump administration is expected to start an audit on Wednesday of state Medicaid Fraud Control Units to ensure they are doing enough to combat fraud. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force’s work is so important. I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate. <a href="https://t.co/dg9prv9mYz">https://t.co/dg9prv9mYz</a>
— JD Vance (@JDVance) <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance/status/2051391872623362379?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
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“Your failure to do your job,” Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Thomas Bell wrote in a letter to the states, “has put all of your state’s Medicaid funds in jeopardy.”
The plan was developed by Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson, who is working with Vance on the task force.
&#8220;The American taxpayer is tired of states receiving billions of dollars to police fraud and elder abuse and instead using that money for no-show jobs,&#8221; FTC director of public affairs Joe Simonson <a href="https://x.com/SaysSimonson/status/2054564421951795308">said</a>. &#8220;We cannot have a country with entitlements built on fraud and theft. Our most vulnerable are suffering.&#8221;
Vance vowed to investigate home health care in response to The Daily Wire’s “Medicaid Millions” series on Ohio, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-ohios-home-health-empire-7-buildings-288-medicaid-companies-250-million">showed</a> that just seven buildings in Columbus housed 288 home health care businesses that billed taxpayers more than $250 million. Columbus is home to one of the largest African immigrant populations in the country.
“These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force’s work is so important. I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate,” he posted, sharing a thread from Rosiak detailing the uncovered fraud.
During the pause of new approvals of home health care and hospices funded by Medicare, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will audit the home health care system, which is fully funded and administered by the federal government. States with funding from both the federal government and the states administer the Medicaid home health program. 
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-gop-launches-new-task-force-probes-alleged-250b-medicaid-fraud-ohio">tasked</a> Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) with leading a new task force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses. Gill will focus the task force’s efforts on investigating home health care and Medicaid in Ohio in the wake of The Daily Wire&#8217;s reporting. 
“The reports of Ohio’s Medicaid fraud scandal are appalling — and we’re just uncovering the tip of the iceberg of the fraud and swindling of millions of American dollars,&#8221; Gill told The Daily Wire. &#8220;My Task Force is demanding answers and transparency from the Director of the Ohio Department of Medicaid, as we will continue to press those who need to account for their abuse of American taxpayers.”
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Vice President JD Vance Speaks At A Manufacturing Facility In Des Moines, Iowa

Daily Wire Medicaid Investigation Triggers A $1.4 BILLION Spending Freeze

JD Vance

Medicaid Millionaires

Trump Administration

waste fraud abuse

62. Munich Security Conference

Gavin Newsom’s $30 Billion Fraud Magnet

California

Christopher Rufo

Democrats

Fraud

Gavin Newsom

Health Insurance

Hospice

Investigation

Labor Unions

Manhattan Institute

Artemis II

The Media Does Not Want To Talk About This Historic NASA Launch. Here’s Why.

Elon Musk

Legacy Media

Matt Walsh

Moon

NASA

Opinion

Space

If Democrats in the Senate continue to block a short-term government funding plan, a program that allows low-income and Medicare patients to be treated at home rather than in a hospital will expire, the White House warns. 
The Acute Hospital Care at Home Initiative enables hospitals to obtain approval to treat Medicare patients with conditions such as respiratory diseases or bacterial infections at home. The program, which was rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to expire on September 30 unless reauthorized by Congress.
Around 1,200 Medicare patients per month currently benefit from the program, according to information provided to The Daily Wire by the Office of Management and Budget. The program has been well-received by both patients and healthcare providers, <a href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-report-study-acute-hospital-care-home-initiative">according</a> to evaluations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 
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“Democrats are trying to shut down the government to pacify their base, and they don’t care who they hurt in the process — including beneficiaries receiving hospital care at home,” a Trump administration official told The Daily Wire. “This program has been a success and is popular with patients and providers.” 
“While Republicans voted to extend it, Democrats are more than happy to harm these patients and force them out of their homes so that they can shut the government down,” the administration official added. 
The program was included in the short-term spending package passed by the House last week, which continues federal spending as is for seven weeks. However, Democrats are blocking the same bill from passing in the Senate. 
As of Friday, 48,955 patients have benefited from the program, and 419 hospitals across 39 states have approved participation in the program, according to the Office of Management and Budget. 
Commonly treated conditions under the program include heart failure, blood poisoning, respiratory disease, pneumonia, bacterial infection, urinary tract infection, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Early evaluation of the program indicates generally lower mortality and readmission rates for patients treated at home. 
If a shutdown occurs, the Office of Management and Budget has directed federal agencies to prepare for permanent reduction-in-force plans, indicating that widespread firings could be forthcoming across the federal government. President Donald Trump has said that the Democrats are holding the funding hostage by trying to force taxpayer funding for illegal alien healthcare and transgender surgeries on children.

Democrats Call On FCC Chair To Resign Over ABC’s Kimmel Decision

Popular Health Program Will Expire If Senate Dems Force Government Shutdown, White House Warns

Health Care

Hospitals

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

The Justice Department subpoenaed Boston Children’s Hospital for alleged healthcare fraud related to sex-change surgeries for minors, <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/exclusive-boston-childrens-hospital-subpoenaed-by-doj-over-gender-transition-procedures-for-minors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Review</a> reported Monday.
The department <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-subpoenas-doctors-and-clinics-involved-performing-transgender-medical?utm_source=semafor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> earlier this month that it was investigating hospitals “involved in performing transgender medical procedures on children” for “healthcare fraud, false statements, and more.”
“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the memo.
In <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">January, Trump</a> signed an executive order banning federal funding for sex-change surgeries for minors. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a rule change this month to implement the order. In May, CMS sent a letter to hospitals requesting “financial data for all pediatric sex trait modifications” that are “paid, in whole or in part, by the federal government.”
Some hospitals have <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/kaiser-permanente-to-pause-transgender-surgeries-for-teenagers-nationwide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paused</a> programs or even <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/l-a-childrens-closes-trans-youth-center-under-pressure-from-trump-admin-joins-growing-list-of-closures/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closed</a> their clinics offering gender transition interventions to minors following Trump’s executive orders.
However, according to whistleblowers — including adults who regret their sex-transition surgeries and surgeon Eithan Haim — others are finding ways of getting around the ban.
Whistleblower testimony claims that hospitals use deceptive billing codes to hide sex change surgeries for children while making insurance claims under federal programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
The hospital didn’t address the specific allegations.
“Boston Children’s Hospital is committed to providing safe, evidence-based, and compassionate care to every patient and family we serve,” a Boston Children’s Hospital spokesman told National Review.
The hospital has a history of politically motivated healthcare.
While the hospital has <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/boston-childrens-hospital-warns-employees-far-right-online-harassment-rcna43376" target="_blank" rel="noopener">denied</a> performing sex-change surgeries on minors, an <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/11/7/1943" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine by faculty members claims that its Center for Gender Surgery is “the first pediatric center in the United States to offer gender-affirming chest surgeries for individuals over 15 years old and genital surgeries for those over 17 years of age.”
Last year, Boston Children’s faced backlash after halving its assessment time for children requesting life-altering transgender medical interventions. Laura Edwards-Leeper, who was the founding psychologist for the hospital’s gender clinic, the first of its kind in the United States, called the decision “<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14035429/boston-children-hospital-doctor-fury-transgender-surgery.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crazy</a>.”
Boston Children’s is one of three hospitals currently being <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-launches-probes-against-3-childrens-hospitals-genital-mutilation-minors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigated</a> by the FBI for potential violation of a federal statute that condemns female genital mutilation.
The Justice Department has issued subpoenas to 20 medical establishments in total. While it did not reveal the names of the establishments in its memo, the <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2025/07/18/childrens-hospital-colorado-subpoena-gender-affirming-care/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Children’s Hospital Colorado</a> has stated that it is also under investigation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi Testifies In Senate Hearing

Trump DOJ Subpoenas Boston Children’s Hospital For Alleged Youth Sex Change Fraud

Boston Children's Hospital

Pam Bondi

Transgender

transgender surgery

The Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-health-care-fraud-takedown-results-324-defendants-charged-connection-over-146" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> the results of its annual healthcare fraud “takedown” this week, in which they charged 324 defendants with $14.6 billion of medical fraud.
Defendants include 96 licensed medical professionals “in 50 federal districts and 12 State Attorneys General’s Offices across the United States.”
“With more than $13 billion in fraud uncovered, this is the largest takedown for this initiative to date,” said FBI director Kash Patel. The <a href="https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">initiative</a> identified $2.75 billion in fraud in 2024 and $2.5 billion in 2023.
“The government seized over $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency, and other assets,” the Justice Department stated.
In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “prevented over $4 billion from being paid in response to false and fraudulent claims and that it suspended or revoked the billing privileges of 205 providers in the months leading up to the Takedown.” Civil charges and settlements amount to another $48.5 million.
The busted fraud schemes involve identity theft, fraudulent wound care, prescription opioid trafficking, and fake telemedicine claims.
One transnational criminal organization alone was responsible for $10.6 billion of the $14.6 billion in total fraud identified.
A network of foreign individuals “strategically bought dozens of medical supply companies located across the United States,” then used the stolen identities of over a million Americans to submit fraudulent Medicare claims for “urinary catheters and other durable medical equipment.”
In another case, foreign individuals relied on artificial intelligence to carry out identity theft.
“The defendants allegedly used artificial intelligence to create fake recordings of Medicare beneficiaries purportedly consenting to receive certain products,” the Justice Department says. The recordings were then “sold to laboratories and durable medical equipment companies, which used this unlawfully obtained and fraudulently generated data to submit false claims to Medicare.”
So far, the government has recovered $44.7 million of the $418 million paid on these claims.
Other defendants allegedly submitted fraudulent claims for unnecessary amniotic wound grafts, targeting elderly patients and receiving “millions in illegal kickbacks from the fraudulent billing scheme.”
Agency and department heads affirmed their commitment to rooting out health care fraud schemes, emphasizing how they harm patients and Americans.
The schemes “often result in physical patient harm through medically unnecessary treatments or failure to provide the correct treatments,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, adding that medical fraudsters steal “ money hardworking Americans contribute to pay for the care of their elders and other vulnerable citizens.”
“This record-setting Health Care Fraud Takedown delivers justice to criminal actors who prey upon our most vulnerable citizens and steal from hardworking American taxpayers,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
“Make no mistake — this administration will not tolerate criminals who line their pockets with taxpayer dollars while endangering the health and safety of our communities.”

President Trump Swears In Steve Witkoff As Special Envoy

Trump Justice Department Exposes $14 Billion In Medicare and Medicaid Fraud

Department of Justice

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stated on Sunday that protecting Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid is a &#8220;top priority&#8221; for the White House and congressional Republicans.
In an interview on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; with host Maria Bartiromo, Johnson discussed the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hold-trump-scores-big-beautiful-victory-house-budget-vote" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently-passed</a> budget reconciliation framework, which sets the stage for President Donald Trump&#8217;s proposed comprehensive bill to advance his domestic priorities.
&#8220;Well, here&#8217;s the key to all of it. The president has made absolutely clear many times, as we have as well, that we&#8217;re going to protect Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid for people who are legally beneficiaries of those programs,&#8221; Johnson replied. &#8220;There are a lot of Americans who rely upon those programs, and we have got to ensure that they&#8217;re safeguarded. That&#8217;s a big priority of the White House and the Republicans in Congress.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today, exclusively on <a href="https://twitter.com/SundayFutures?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SundayFutures</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MariaBartiromo</a>, House Speaker Mike Johnson <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpeakerJohnson</a> spoke about Congress advancing a blueprint of President Trump&#39;s agenda.<a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/WbvVwgZwnz">pic.twitter.com/WbvVwgZwnz</a>
&mdash; SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) <a href="https://twitter.com/SundayFutures/status/1911442736827297914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He continued: &#8220;At the same time, we have to root out fraud, waste, and abuse. We have to eliminate people on — for example, on Medicaid, who are not actually eligible to be there, able-bodied workers, for example, young men who are — who should never be on the program at all.&#8221;
Johnson was responding to Bartiromo asking the question: &#8220;So knowing that 76% of the spending goes toward mandatory spending, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, where are the offsets?&#8221;
Democrats have <a href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/news/press-releases/leader-schumer-floor-remarks-on-republican-attacks-on-social-security-and-elon-musks-call-to-eliminate-entitlement-programs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> that Republicans, led by Trump and influenced by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort overseen by Elon Musk, are working to dismantle the various programs in a move that would harm millions of seniors, people with disabilities, and other Americans who are reliant on the benefits they offer.
Johnson argued that preserving resources for those who truly need them — such as young single mothers, people with disabilities, and the elderly on Medicaid — requires preventing others from &#8220;draining&#8221; these programs.
&#8220;We have got to protect and preserve that program,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;So we&#8217;re going to preserve the integrity of it in this process. We have lots of categories of areas where the government is too large, it does too many things. And the DOGE efforts and others have highlighted that for the American people.&#8221;

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

Speaker Johnson Outlines Plan To Secure Benefits, ‘Root Out’ Fraud And Waste

Congress

Mike Johnson

U.S.

U.S. House of Representatives

President Trump is keeping his promises, moving fast and making changes in historic and amazing ways.
On Tuesday, the President of the United States, via his Office of Management and Budget (OMB), put forward a proposal that would temporarily pause $3 trillion in spending from the federal government.
The pause is temporary; much of that spending will go forward.
But the idea is to review all non-mandatory federal government spending. There&#8217;s a lot of mandatory spending in the federal budget that includes Medicare, Social Security, and many aspects of Medicaid. That will all continue, as will various payments to law enforcement, bodies, and defense.
What the order is meant to do is allow a pause for the various branches of the federal government, which are under the control of President Trump, to review spending and ensure all expenses are in accordance with the president&#8217;s wishes and with the wishes of Congress.
So, of course, the Left freaked out, claiming that President Trump is doing something deeply unconstitutional and fascistic.
But here’s the point: You do not get to expand and centralize power of the executive branch for over a century and control every aspect of Americans’ lives, as the Left has done, and then, when your political opponent takes over and uses that power in order to cut back the amount of power the executive branch would be exerting in Americans lives, get to claim that he is a dictator.
You don&#8217;t get to do that. You break it; you bought it. You built this thing, so you can&#8217;t be shocked when the person who takes over decides he&#8217;s going to use the instruments that you created to downgrade the amount of impact that those instruments have on Americans’ everyday lives.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2127-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
On Tuesday, the executive office of the President, the Office of Management and Budget, put out a memo. It <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25506186/m-25-13-temporary-pause-to-review-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistance-programs.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>: 
<blockquote>The American people elected Donald J. Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar. In Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans. Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities. Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.</blockquote>
In other words, “We got elected, and now we&#8217;re going to implement the priorities of the American people.”
This memorandum, according to the OMB, requires federal agencies to identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the president&#8217;s policies and requirements. By the way, this does not include assistance provided directly for individuals. Nothing in the memo itself should be construed to impact Medicare or Social Security benefits.
So, of course, the media, en masse, lied, suggesting that individual benefits from these mandatory social spending programs were going to be impacted by the OMB order.
That&#8217;s false. It&#8217;s a lie. And it&#8217;s being promoted by people who are lying to you. According to the OMB: 
<blockquote>To implement these orders, each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President&#8217;s executive orders. In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.</blockquote>
One of the great boondoggles in American public life is non-governmental organizations being paid grants by the federal government that are going to Left-wing social organizations on a nonprofit basis.
According to the memo, “No later than February 10, 2025, agencies shall submit to OMB detailed information on any programs, projects or activities subject to this pause. Each agency must pause: (i) issuance of new awards; (ii) disbursement of Federal funds under all open awards; and (iii) other relevant agency actions that may be implicated by the executive orders, to the extent permissible by law, until OMB has reviewed and provided guidance to your agency with respect to the information submitted. OMB may grant exceptions allowing Federal agencies to issue new awards or take other actions on a case-by-case basis.”
It is a lie that this is a blanket nuking of all federal spending.
It is a way of taking a harder look at the federal spending that has grown wildly out of control — spending in which your taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize groups that, for example, sponsor illegal immigrants or go toward social engineering of the Left, such as transgenderism.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and OMB found that $37 billion was about to go out the door to the World Health Organization, which is an organization that President Trump no longer wants the United States to be a part of. So that wouldn&#8217;t be in line with the president&#8217;s agenda. DOGE and OMB also found that $50 million taxpayer dollars would have gone out the door to fund condoms in Gaza, where Hamas makes them into helium balloons carrying inflammatory devices.
What we are also seeing is malicious compliance here from various people inside the so-called “Deep State,” attempts to humiliate the Trump administration. The Medicaid portal story, which was the biggest story yesterday in the mainstream media, was just silly. The portal was up and running again within hours. What likely happened is that somebody in the Medicaid system pretended they were complying with Trump, but shut down the website to attempt to create a humiliating fiasco for President Trump.
A federal judge, according to CNBC, has put a hold on Trump’s administration order. This will likely end up at the Supreme Court level, and that will determine presumably exactly how far empowerments can go.
It’s a fight worth fighting.

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