Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Ohio's Caregiver Fraud Exposed w Sen Ted Cruz

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Ohio's Caregiver Fraud Exposed w Sen Ted Cruz · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

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Speaker 1: It is illegal.
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Speaker 2: It is guess the war we've been talking about this, Aharon. Obviously,
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Speaker 2: to bomb the infrastructure of any country that is against
0:08
Speaker 2: international law. This is essentially doing the same thing. It
0:12
Speaker 2: is bombing the infrastructure of Cubo with economic sanctions that
0:17
Speaker 2: essentially ensure that the infrastructure collapses.
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Speaker 3: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
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Speaker 4: Good Saturday morning. Nice to have you with us on
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Speaker 4: the forty seven Morning Update. And we've got one big
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Speaker 4: story for you, massive fraud, but this time not in
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Speaker 4: a liberal area of the country in Ohio, and it's
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Speaker 4: costing you millions and millions of dollars. Senator Cruz joins
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Speaker 4: me to break down exactly how bad the fraud could
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Speaker 4: be nationwide. And it's not just in liberal cities. Yes,
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Speaker 4: Democrats have learned exactly how to take advantage no matter
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Speaker 4: where they live, and we're going to expose it all.
0:54
Speaker 4: I want you to pause what you're doing for just
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Speaker 4: one minute, and I want you to hear about Alejandra.
1:00
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1:03
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1:08
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1:19
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Speaker 4: drove hours to find a doctor who tried everything, but
1:31
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1:35
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1:39
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1:44
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1:49
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2:13
Speaker 4: So help a child just like Alejandra. Today you can
2:17
Speaker 4: visit Compassion dot com. That's Compassion dot com. It's the
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Speaker 4: forty seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
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Speaker 3: Story number one center.
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Speaker 4: Just since we started this show, and we have this
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Speaker 4: Somali fraud that we're going to talk about in Ohio.
2:33
Speaker 4: But there's a new article that just came out. I'm
2:36
Speaker 4: just gonna read the headline because it just shows how
2:37
Speaker 4: fast the fraud is being exposed. Somali's reportedly filled an
2:42
Speaker 4: Ohio strip mall with potential fraudulent childcare centers. This coming
2:47
Speaker 4: from the AB six investigators there in Columbus, saying several
2:50
Speaker 4: Somali owned daycare facilities, including a cluster located strip mall,
2:54
Speaker 4: which by the way, don't exist, they've now been uncovered.
2:58
Speaker 4: And then that is on top of a another local
3:00
Speaker 4: station that just exposed a massive trucking company fraud. All
3:06
Speaker 4: of these trucking companies like dozens and dozens, all at
3:09
Speaker 4: the same exact address in these suites. So now we've
3:13
Speaker 4: got new fraud on top of fraud on top of
3:16
Speaker 4: the fraud we're going to talk about on this show today.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a stunning pattern, and it's clear the fraudsters
3:21
Speaker 1: believe they would never face any scrutiny, that no politician
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Speaker 1: would hold them to account, that no prosecutor would hold
3:27
Speaker 1: them to account, that nobody in the media would ever
3:29
Speaker 1: report as they were stealing millions and millions of dollars
3:32
Speaker 1: from the taxpayers. And I got to say that tide
3:36
Speaker 1: is starting to turn that there's a blockbuster story of
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Speaker 1: the Daily Wire by Luke Rosiak, who is the same
3:42
Speaker 1: lawyer who broke the Louden County story in Virginia that
3:46
Speaker 1: ended up electing Glenn Youngkin as the governor of Virginia.
3:50
Speaker 1: So so he's demonstrated that he can do real, real
3:54
Speaker 1: news work in a way that CNN, ABC, NBC they
3:57
Speaker 1: don't do anymore. But this story. I want to read
4:00
Speaker 1: a good chunk of this story because if you haven't
4:02
Speaker 1: read it, you need to know what's in it. It's
4:05
Speaker 1: entitled Daily Wire Investigation reveals one of the biggest government
4:08
Speaker 1: waste scandals hiding in plain sight. I've been investigating federal
4:12
Speaker 1: waste and fraud for twenty years. This is the biggest
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Speaker 1: scandal I've ever found Columbus, Ohio. Just before the Department
4:19
Speaker 1: of Government Efficiency closed its doors, it made a quiet
4:23
Speaker 1: move that may end up being its most lasting impact
4:26
Speaker 1: on the federal deficit. DOGE published a massive trove of
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Speaker 1: data in February that, for the first time, let the
4:34
Speaker 1: public see what companies are billing Medicaid for For decades,
4:40
Speaker 1: the payouts have been shrouded in secrecy. One of the
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Speaker 1: largest government programs was a black box. I've spent the
4:47
Speaker 1: past two months diving into the numbers. What I found
4:50
Speaker 1: was the most blatant waste of federal dollars that I've
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Speaker 1: encountered in my two decades as an investigative reporter. I've
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Speaker 1: set my site in Ohio, which, like Minnesota, has been
5:03
Speaker 1: granted waivers to expand Medicaid well beyond its original purpose.
5:08
Speaker 1: Under the guise of Healthcare, Ohio pays people to go
5:12
Speaker 1: to Medicaid beneficiaries homes to perform quote homemaking and quote
5:18
Speaker 1: chores like cooking and cleaning. The people performing these quote
5:23
Speaker 1: personal services tasks don't even have to be healthcare workers,
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Speaker 1: and in many cases are actually relatives of the Medicaid recipient.
5:33
Speaker 1: According to a Daily Wired data analysis, Ohio spent a
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Speaker 1: billion dollars billion with a BEE on home healthcare in
5:42
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, the last year for which data is available.
5:47
Speaker 1: Since the services are performed inside private residences, there's no
5:51
Speaker 1: way to know whether the workers went at all or
5:54
Speaker 1: what they're actually doing in exchange for taxpayer funds. An
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Speaker 1: infinite number of small black boxes inside a black box,
6:04
Speaker 1: multiple signs said the service provided and build of the
6:07
Speaker 1: government was sometimes just quote companionship and conversation. So understand,
6:15
Speaker 1: you can talk to your relatives. You can hang out
6:17
Speaker 1: with your relatives and talk to them, and the federal
6:19
Speaker 1: government will pay you just for talking to Grandpa.
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Speaker 4: I mean, you listen to that story and it doesn't
6:25
Speaker 4: even make sense until you understand that that's exactly what
6:28
Speaker 4: they're doing. They're like, hey, we're gonna pay you to
6:32
Speaker 4: hang out, not take care, hang out with a relative.
6:36
Speaker 4: They're also, how would they get all the patients for
6:39
Speaker 4: the fraud to work? You put it on a billboard, right,
6:42
Speaker 4: you put up billboards. You recruit family members to defraud
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Speaker 4: the government by hanging out and spending time with your
6:50
Speaker 4: own mom or dad or aunt or uncle or brother
6:52
Speaker 4: or sister, and we will pay you to do that.
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Speaker 4: And I mean, it's just if that's not the definition
6:58
Speaker 4: of fraud, I don't know what is.
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Speaker 1: Well, it gets worse as people have realized the United
7:03
Speaker 1: States government will pay them to hang out with their
7:06
Speaker 1: own families.
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Speaker 2: There it is.
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Speaker 1: Northeast Columbus has seen its economy replaced by businesses that
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Speaker 1: bill medicaid, and Columbus, a city with the second largest
7:19
Speaker 1: Somali population in the country, did you know that Columbus, Ohio.
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Speaker 4: No I did not, and that's shocking. But now it
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Speaker 4: explains why the fraud's so high.
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Speaker 1: Well, Columbus has become, on the surface, the most unhealthy
7:33
Speaker 1: city on the planet.
7:35
Speaker 4: Now to be clear what we mean by that, because
7:37
Speaker 4: like using the past, you're on healthy city, you usually
7:40
Speaker 4: hear that's like a say that's overweight where the people.
7:42
Speaker 1: Aren't active here, they're just flooding.
7:44
Speaker 4: Catch Yeah, like this is the unhealthy as in how
7:50
Speaker 4: much money is it taking to take care of people
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Speaker 4: through medicare. That is what's making the most unhealthy city
7:55
Speaker 4: in America. It's not that it's like overweight population, food
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Speaker 4: deserts and things like that. Yeah, this is how bad
8:01
Speaker 4: the fraud is.
8:02
Speaker 1: Well, here's what one person said. Quote, well, if the
8:06
Speaker 1: government is going to pay you to do it, one
8:07
Speaker 1: home health operator told me, people see it as lucrative,
8:11
Speaker 1: so they just jump on it. The new welfare queens
8:15
Speaker 1: aren't the recipients whose low incomes qualify them for poverty programs.
8:20
Speaker 1: They're the companies getting rich off them. Now, listen to
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Speaker 1: these companies. Driving down Cleveland Avenue. In less than forty seconds,
8:28
Speaker 1: you come across endless home health companies, Capital home Health,
8:33
Speaker 1: Continental home Health, Dynamic Home Healthcare, Ohio Senior Home Healthcare.
8:40
Speaker 1: Entire buildings throughout the city are filled entirely with what
8:43
Speaker 1: appeared to be identical businesses. The enormous complex pictured below,
8:49
Speaker 1: and there's a picture in the article, is six one six'
8:53
Speaker 1: One Bush. Boulevard its lack of windows would be a
8:56
Speaker 1: problem for most office, buildings but there is almost no
9:00
Speaker 1: one in this. One what's inside is ninety four ninety
9:06
Speaker 1: four different companies signed up to Bill, medicaid each with
9:11
Speaker 1: a tiny, office often marked with a sheet of paper
9:14
Speaker 1: proclaiming some generic company name ending in Home HEALTH. Llc
9:19
Speaker 1: and sometimes this is particularly, funny another piece of paper
9:23
Speaker 1: claiming the employees had just stepped out for a. Break mind,
9:26
Speaker 1: you they've all stepped out for a break and then
9:28
Speaker 1: never come. Back this building alone build taxpayers sixty six
9:36
Speaker 1: million dollars in the span of a few. Years the record.
9:39
Speaker 1: Show pick the owner of A columbus home healthcare company
9:44
Speaker 1: at random and look them up on public. Records you're
9:46
Speaker 1: likely to go down an endless rabbit. Hole years of
9:50
Speaker 1: unpaid taxes and, debts sometimes criminal, records and an astonishing
9:54
Speaker 1: number of LLC's created in other, industries as if the
9:57
Speaker 1: millions they make For medicaid are a side. Gig we
10:01
Speaker 1: went down several of those rabbit. Holes in the coming,
10:04
Speaker 1: days you'll meet, Now i'm gonna give you several of these.
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Speaker 1: Examples every one of these is going to piss you.
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Speaker 1: Off these are real, people or at least real fake
10:11
Speaker 1: people In. Ohio number one a politician who founded an
10:20
Speaker 1: eleven million dollar home health care company that he appeared
10:24
Speaker 1: to run part time without even mentioning it in his political,
10:29
Speaker 1: biography who then funded his. Campaign he funded his campaign
10:37
Speaker 1: with donations from other home healthcare. Owners so this is
10:42
Speaker 1: a guy robbing a million dollars eleven million. Dollars he's
10:46
Speaker 1: hiding it because obviously he's embarrassed about, it and he's
10:49
Speaker 1: relying on other fraudsters to fund his political. Operation this
10:54
Speaker 1: is the shameless, grift the cycle of thievery that we're
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Speaker 1: seeing over and over. Again another, One number, two a
11:01
Speaker 1: woman who reinvented her JANITORIAL. Llc so she had a
11:06
Speaker 1: janitorial company as a quote health. Provider then she Build.
11:11
Speaker 1: Medicaid what do you think she Build? Medicaid the very
11:14
Speaker 1: first month she went from being a janitorial company to healthcare.
11:17
Speaker 1: Provider she build medicaid.
11:19
Speaker 4: A Good somali, mentor and you go from the toilet
11:22
Speaker 4: cleaning you know job to then and, SORRY i got
11:25
Speaker 4: the hiccups. Now but if you go from a toilet
11:27
Speaker 4: cleaning job to then you go to home, healthcare like,
11:30
Speaker 4: sure your first month and startup would BE i don't,
11:33
Speaker 4: know five, grand eight, grand MAYBE i Know i'm, wrong.
11:37
Speaker 1: Right nearly one hundred. Grand, yeah one hundred.
11:39
Speaker 4: Grand first, month first, month like that is one heck
11:42
Speaker 4: of a, startup right, there, Folks.
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Speaker 1: All, right here's another. One number. Three by the, way
11:47
Speaker 1: you've got the, hiccups we're gonna send a home healthcare. Provider, yeah,
11:51
Speaker 1: yeah CAN i make a one hundred Grand i'll take you.
11:53
Speaker 1: That that would be your, children and they're gonna go
11:56
Speaker 1: punch you in the stomach till you stop hic.
11:58
Speaker 4: COPYING i like this. Plan as long as they get,
12:01
Speaker 4: paid it's. FINE i want to kick back, here or.
12:04
Speaker 1: At least golf. Sponsorships there you. Go number three a
12:09
Speaker 1: landlord who bought airplanes after renting space to hundreds of
12:14
Speaker 1: home health care companies that build medicaid a quarter of
12:19
Speaker 1: a billion dollars quarter of a, billion two hundred and fifty.
12:22
Speaker 1: Million number four a man who went to prison for
12:27
Speaker 1: medicaid fraud but told the government he was too broke
12:29
Speaker 1: to pay restitution while his neighbors and associates provide over
12:35
Speaker 1: a poverty program. Empire And number five an accountant who
12:41
Speaker 1: has lost his license for stealing public funds then opened
12:46
Speaker 1: a seven million dollar home health care company using the
12:50
Speaker 1: address of a convicted money launderer's teenage. Son Now i'm gonna, Say,
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Speaker 1: ben if you're listening to, this if you're not pissed,
12:58
Speaker 1: off you're buying.
12:59
Speaker 4: IT I, mean this story really brings us back to
13:03
Speaker 4: even a bigger, point and that is this isab probably.
13:07
Speaker 4: Nationwide like what we're, witnessing what we're, saying this is
13:11
Speaker 4: going to end up being fraud at different, levels probably
13:13
Speaker 4: in every state Of, america because you're still dealing with
13:17
Speaker 4: fraud through the federal, government so you can set up shop,
13:20
Speaker 4: anywhere because it's not like it's a lot of state oversight.
13:23
Speaker 1: Here, well, listen this is. Brazen these are fraudsters who
13:29
Speaker 1: believe no politician will ever call them to, account no
13:33
Speaker 1: government employee will ever examine the, Facts no prosecutor will
13:36
Speaker 1: look at, it and they're quite confident that the press
13:38
Speaker 1: will never examine. It these are not. Geniuses let me
13:42
Speaker 1: read a little more from the. Story these are not in,
13:44
Speaker 1: fact here's the POINT i was just. Making these are
13:46
Speaker 1: not business, geniuses nor even people with any training or
13:50
Speaker 1: specialty in the health. Field they've often failed at a
13:54
Speaker 1: variety of businesses before suddenly becoming millionaires in home. Healthcare
13:59
Speaker 1: sometimes a, couple but he will have a full roster
14:01
Speaker 1: of clients in his very first, month making one wonder
14:05
Speaker 1: where the clients come. From the companies don't have websites
14:09
Speaker 1: or appear to. Advertise they can't stand out from their
14:13
Speaker 1: thousands of rivals based on price unless they pay kickbacks
14:17
Speaker 1: because the government pays the same to. Everyone nearly every
14:23
Speaker 1: owner of a healthcare company In columbus appears to be.
14:27
Speaker 1: Foreign let me repeat, that because that's a stunning. Statement
14:31
Speaker 1: nearly every owner of a home health care company In
14:35
Speaker 1: columbus appears to be. Foreign they live in a parallel
14:38
Speaker 1: society where every associate and public records also has a foreign,
14:44
Speaker 1: name and all their business transactions are conducted with other.
14:48
Speaker 1: Foreigners when we asked one what home health care companies.
14:53
Speaker 1: Did one man threatened. Journalists who cares do you guys
14:58
Speaker 1: pay my? Bills i'm gonna tell everybody you guys are.
15:02
Speaker 1: Racists the government cannot meaningfully monitor all the people it
15:07
Speaker 1: writes million dollar checks to In. Columbus they all share
15:11
Speaker 1: combinations of just a few, names Like Ahmed mohammed And Mohammed.
15:16
Speaker 1: Ahmed how is this not? Satire by the Way i'm,
15:21
Speaker 1: reading actual news documents reviewed By The Daily wire show
15:26
Speaker 1: individuals will spell their own name multiple different ways within
15:32
Speaker 1: a single. Document let me repeat that. Again someone spells
15:36
Speaker 1: the Name Bean, Ferguson, yeah, Bad fergie Fergisn, like, like how?
15:43
Speaker 1: Many how do you misspell your name multiple times in a?
15:47
Speaker 1: Document and?
15:47
Speaker 4: Backwards sometimes it Was Ben, Ferguson it Was, Ferguson, ben
15:51
Speaker 4: like it Was Ted cruz and Then Cruise, ted.
15:54
Speaker 1: You, Know, Penealopy, Cruise Tom Cruise Cruise control like like
15:59
Speaker 1: every very can come with and many of them lists
16:02
Speaker 1: their birthdays As january, first because their birthdays are. Unknown
16:08
Speaker 1: the business model is. SIMPLE a forty year Old somali
16:11
Speaker 1: immigrant gets paid for spending time with and maybe cooking
16:15
Speaker 1: for his own sixty five year old. Mother the middleman
16:20
Speaker 1: is one of thousands of home health firms that have
16:23
Speaker 1: THE npi number necessary to bill. Medicate the forty year
16:27
Speaker 1: old becomes a quote employee of that, company but has
16:32
Speaker 1: no clients other than his. Mother there is no way
16:37
Speaker 1: to verify whether he actually provided the quote services unless
16:42
Speaker 1: his own mother is willing to testify against. Him this
16:46
Speaker 1: poverty program is different from things like food stamps because
16:50
Speaker 1: it has no monetary cap and its extent is decided
16:54
Speaker 1: not by politicians but by any doctor willing to sign
16:57
Speaker 1: a form saying you could use some help around the.
17:00
Speaker 1: House it only takes one doctor who will say yes
17:03
Speaker 1: to turn out enough forms to bankrupt a.
17:07
Speaker 4: State to bankrupt a, state let's let's let's be clear
17:11
Speaker 4: about what like they're. Saying this is why they're the
17:14
Speaker 4: most unhealthy city In america because of this. Fraud this
17:17
Speaker 4: is why all your tax hours are going there and.
17:20
Speaker 4: All it takes a doctor with apparently no checks and.
17:22
Speaker 4: Balances but it's like doctor. Shopping like we know doctors
17:26
Speaker 4: that do. This they abuse their. Power they write. Scripts for,
17:29
Speaker 4: example there's one arrest rested In houston this. Week it
17:31
Speaker 4: was writing massive amounts of opioid. Scripts why because he's
17:35
Speaker 4: getting massive paydays from. Patients you could have the same
17:39
Speaker 4: same exact thing happening.
17:40
Speaker 1: There for, years efforts to rein in waste have nibbled
17:44
Speaker 1: around the, edges shaving off a million here and a million.
17:47
Speaker 1: There while skeptics and liberals argue that the cost cutting
17:51
Speaker 1: exercise was pointless because the lion's share of federal spending
17:55
Speaker 1: was locked up in quote non discretionary spending like, healthcare
18:00
Speaker 1: the implication was that there was no waste in that
18:03
Speaker 1: category and nothing that could be done about, it even
18:06
Speaker 1: as the nation careened torns. Insolvency that premise couldn't be more.
18:12
Speaker 1: Wrong this blatant waste happened within miles of The ohio State,
18:18
Speaker 1: capitol Where Governor Mike, DeWine A, republican and his appointees
18:23
Speaker 1: run the. State in an era of artificial, intelligence the
18:27
Speaker 1: medicaid system has seemed disinterested in even the most obvious red.
18:32
Speaker 1: Flags perhaps that's because it's largely run by, states but
18:37
Speaker 1: with half or more of the bill being footed by
18:39
Speaker 1: the federal. Taxpayers The trump administration is now turning its
18:43
Speaker 1: sites to medicaid, fraud with a task force led by
18:46
Speaker 1: The Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew ferguson And Vice PRESIDENT. J. D.
18:50
Speaker 1: Vance they may want to start With vance's home. STATE
18:54
Speaker 1: i get to, say, look this is, stunning and it
18:58
Speaker 1: is a. Pattern it's not find To, minnesota it's not
19:02
Speaker 1: confined To. Ohio this is a pattern of theft across the,
19:07
Speaker 1: country and we need to have vigorous. EFFORTS i want
19:10
Speaker 1: to command The trump. Administration The department Of justice is
19:13
Speaker 1: going after this. FRAUD hhs is going after this. Fraud
19:16
Speaker 1: we're beginning to see. Accountability AND i want to thank
19:18
Speaker 1: The Daily wire for doing some. Reporting let me ask
19:22
Speaker 1: where the hell IS, CNN, ABC, NBC cbs is doing
19:27
Speaker 1: a little, Bit But Washington, Post New York times are? There,
19:32
Speaker 1: actually like the.
19:32
Speaker 4: Hard, orders the hardcore investigative journalists are not doing any
19:36
Speaker 4: of this. Journalism this is like the conservative advocates out
19:41
Speaker 4: there that are doing this. Job The Nick shirley's are
19:44
Speaker 4: doing this. Job no one in the mainstream media is
19:47
Speaker 4: breaking this.
19:47
Speaker 1: Story, look look we covered previously on this podcast HOW
19:52
Speaker 1: cnn when the story broke In, minnesota they decided to check.
19:55
Speaker 1: It so they called these quote childcare agencies and they, Said,
19:58
Speaker 1: hi this IS cnn, calling are you engaged in fraud
20:02
Speaker 1: and they said uh, no and they, said oh, okay thank,
20:04
Speaker 1: you hung. Up that's what they called. Reporting ye the
20:08
Speaker 1: LAST i. Checked if you call criminals and asked them
20:11
Speaker 1: if they're committing, crimes most of them are going to
20:13
Speaker 1: tell you. No and by the, WAY cnn knows that
20:18
Speaker 1: the reporters know, that the producer knows that the executive
20:23
Speaker 1: producer knows that everyone up and down the line knows
20:26
Speaker 1: that they know how to actually investigate a. Story it's
20:30
Speaker 1: just that the media doesn't care about this. STORY i
20:33
Speaker 1: commend The Daily. Wire we're going to keep covering this
20:36
Speaker 1: AND i think this is just the tip of the
20:38
Speaker 1: iceberg on what's.
20:38
Speaker 3: Happening thank you for listening to the forty Seven Morning
20:41
Speaker 3: update With Ben. Ferguson please make sure you hit subscribe
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20:55
Speaker 3: Morning