CAL THOMAS
For release: 02/18/25
Fraud by any other name
By Cal Thomas
Tribune Content Agency
The credit card statement contained an unfamiliar charge. I called the fraud department which canceled the payment and immediately sent me a new card. If only the federal government responded with similar alacrity.
Instead, the reaction from the exposure and rooting out of fraud – mostly from Democrats – has been shouting profanities and demonstrating outside federal government buildings. Some who have ignored the Constitution for years while using federal judges to impose things voters would not tolerate are suddenly appealing to “constitutional order,” demanding Congress not do any cutting or elimination of fraud and waste. They rarely address the misspending, or who is responsible for it. That would include too many Republicans, as well as Democrats.
Protesters now mock Elon Musk for using technologically gifted young people when they promoted and quoted the climate alarmist teenager Greta Thunberg and her speeches proclaiming doom for the planet if her demands were not immediately addressed. Some appear a lot smarter than the Members of Congress who are denouncing them for their youth.
President Trump has directed every government agency to search for misspent money. The latest, but certainly not the last, comes from the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, who discovered $160 million the Biden administration sent to Canada for electric buses that were never built. Adding to the debacle – the company went bankrupt. Zeldin also canceled a $50 million “environmental justice grant” to an organization that believes “climate justice travels through a free Palestine.” Decoded: the elimination of Israel.
An undercover video shows an EPA official bragging about, “throwing billions of dollars of gold bars off the Titanic” after Trump won the election. These “gold bars” are how various government agencies (largely without congressional approval) sustain numerous left-wing groups.
This is only the tip of the “melting” iceberg. Democrats are howling about the exposure of such things because, like the con artist, they are being exposed for many years of misspending our money and fear they are losing their grip on government (see the last election and poll numbers that indicate a majority backs the work of Musk and his DOGE squad).
The New York Times is running interference for those who are trying to shift attention from the fraud and waste. A recent editorial claimed there was “no proof” in such allegations. A counter editorial in The Wall Street Journal obliterated that claim: “A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report last spring estimated the ‘federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.’ The federal auditor said ‘a government-wide approach is required to address it,’ and recommended that the Treasury ‘leverage data-analytics capabilities’ to stop questionable payments.’ That’s what DOGE is trying to do.”
Ah, government accountability. If only.
That’s a pretty wide fraud gap, but why should Congress and various government agencies care? It’s not their money they are spending. Republicans should not be left off the hook. Many are just as guilty as the Democrats they are now deriding because of all the pork they add to various bills without going through hearings that would justify – or not – such needless spending.
The Pentagon is next for the DOGE auditors. Democrats have made it a target for years for overpriced and unnecessary weapons and equipment. They shouldn’t complain now about cuts, but probably will, because complaining, demonstrating and cursing are all they have.
Let the protests continue and let Democrats’ favorability numbers continue to decline as the public backs a return to sunlight being the best disinfectant and the old Puritan ethic of “living within your means.”
Readers may email Cal Thomas at [email protected]. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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