Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Election Night Shockwaves Rock GOP Establishment plus Vance Declares War on Government Fraud

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Election Night Shockwaves Rock GOP Establishment plus Vance Declares War on Government Fraud · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

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  Speaker 1: And within weeks of this task force being established, we've
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  Speaker 1: seen the largest ever slate of indictments, recovered funds, search warns, raids, seizures, investigations,
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  Speaker 1: and new legal actions to stop, disrupt, and prevent fraud.
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  Speaker 1: What we've learned, which is not surprising to those of
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  Speaker 1: us who spent some time in this area, is that
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  Speaker 1: fraud is every bit as bad as President Trump said
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  Speaker 1: it was, and even worse so. In other words, everything
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  Speaker 1: we found either confirms our worst fears or exceeds them.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: Good Wednesday morning.
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  Speaker 4: Nice to have you with us on the forty seven
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  Speaker 4: Morning Update, and we've got two big stories for you.
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  Speaker 4: First up, it was a bloodbath for candidates that tried
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  Speaker 4: to go against President Donald Trump. His endorsement mattered more
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  Speaker 4: than ever. And one thing is clear, America First candidates
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  Speaker 4: are winning over the hearts and the minds on election.
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  Speaker 3: Day of the candidates.
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  Speaker 4: Also, and story number two, Vice President Jade Vance held
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  Speaker 4: a roundtable discussion with many attorney generals from across the
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  Speaker 4: country and the amount of fraud that they have found
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  Speaker 4: is truly shocking.
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  Speaker 3: We have the details for you.
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  Speaker 4: It's the forty seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 3: Story number one.
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's time to break down what we witnessed on
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  Speaker 4: election night in America. And it wasn't just another round
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  Speaker 4: of Republican victories. It was a reminder to the entire
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  Speaker 4: political establishment the President Donald Trump is still the undisputed
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  Speaker 4: king maker of the Republican Party.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 4: The political class and the consultants and the donors and
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  Speaker 4: the so called experts and the elitis of DC, they
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  Speaker 4: literally spent months, if not years, trying to convince American voters.
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  Speaker 4: The Trump's grip on the GOP was, oh, either slipping
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  Speaker 4: or it was a disaster, or we're going to lose
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  Speaker 4: if you listen to Donald Trump. Well, guess what happened.
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  Speaker 4: Election night told of the different story yet again. Across
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  Speaker 4: Texas and across the country, candidate after candidate that was
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  Speaker 4: backed by Donald Trump didn't just survive, they literally dominated.
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  Speaker 4: And nowhere was this more obvious than what happened in
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  Speaker 4: the great state of Texas and the biggest race of
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  Speaker 4: the night. You had the Texas Attorney General, a maga
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  Speaker 4: conservative that the elitis said could not win, a guy
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  Speaker 4: by the name of Ken Paxton. He delivered a political
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  Speaker 4: I would call it earthquake by defeating a longtime incumbent,
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  Speaker 4: Senator John Cornyan and the Republican Senate runoff. And let
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  Speaker 4: me be clear, it was a beatdown. It wasn't just
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  Speaker 4: any victory. Cornyn was one of the most powerful Republicans
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  Speaker 4: in Washington, and everybody that liked to have power in
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  Speaker 4: Washington and had favors, they liked to cash in with Cornyan.
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  Speaker 4: They went into this race with an open, blank checkbook,
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  Speaker 4: and it still didn't work.
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  Speaker 3: Now, Corning was a four term incumbent. Do the math
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  Speaker 3: on that.
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  Speaker 4: That's twenty six years, literally decades of establishment support. He
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  Speaker 4: had massive fundraising from outside the state and every institutional
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  Speaker 4: advantage imaginable when you're an elected official. Yet Ken Paxson
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  Speaker 4: was armed with Trump's endorsement at the last minute, but
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  Speaker 4: he had the MAGA grassroots, the American First grassroots, on
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  Speaker 4: his side the entire time. And what happened. He steamrolled
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  Speaker 4: the political establishment. Now the race became a national referendum
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  Speaker 4: on who actually controls the Republican Party, the Old Guard
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  Speaker 4: in Washington or the America First movement led by Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 4: And voters answered loud and clear, which is making everyone's
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  Speaker 4: minds in the establishment and in the media well go insane. Now,
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  Speaker 4: Paxson's victory was especially significant because not only did the
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  Speaker 4: establishment throw everything they had at him, but they also
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  Speaker 4: had tens of millions of dollars that were spent to
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  Speaker 4: make sure that KEM. Paxxon didn't win. These Republican attacks
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  Speaker 4: were relentless, yet voters looked past all of it and
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  Speaker 4: chose the candate they believe would fight alongside President Trump
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  Speaker 4: not manage the decline of the Republican Party politely from Washington. Now,
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  Speaker 4: Paxson wasn't the only example of this, and congressional races
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  Speaker 4: across the state, you had Trump back candates that kept
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  Speaker 4: piling up victories. Alex Mueller, endorsed by Trump, won the
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  Speaker 4: Republican nomination in Texas in the newly redrawn ninth congressional district,
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  Speaker 4: giving Republicans a major opportunity to flip a Democratic held
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  Speaker 4: seat in November. Trump back Kennants also scored wins in
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  Speaker 4: open congressional seats and key runoff races around the state,
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  Speaker 4: providing that the present endorsement still carries enormous weight with
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  Speaker 4: Republican voters, even kennets, were strong conservative credentials. They understood
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  Speaker 4: one thing during these races, if you wanted to energize
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  Speaker 4: the base, there was no endorsement more valuable than that
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  Speaker 4: of the presidents. And nationally, the same trend continued. Over
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  Speaker 4: the past several weeks. Trump endorsed candidates have been racking
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  Speaker 4: up wins in critical primaries in Kentucky, in Georgia, Indiana,
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  Speaker 4: and in some cases longtime incumbents and establishment Republicans with
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  Speaker 4: unlimited financial backing were pushed out entirely. That is why
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  Speaker 4: election night mattered the most. This wasn't simply about individual races.
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  Speaker 4: This was about the power inside the Republican Party, getting
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  Speaker 4: rid of the rhinos, getting rid of the special interests,
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  Speaker 4: getting rid of the people that don't actually listen to
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  Speaker 4: you and I the voters, and the results showed that
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  Speaker 4: Trump's influence may act actually be stronger now than at
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  Speaker 4: any point since he first became president. In fact, since
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  Speaker 4: he first came down the escalator in twenty fifteen.
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  Speaker 3: Now Story number two, Vice President JD.
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  Speaker 4: Vance stood at the center of what the Trump administration
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  Speaker 4: is calling an all out war on government fraud, waste
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  Speaker 4: and abuse, and the headlines coming out of the Anti
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  Speaker 4: Fraud Roundtable, well, they were staggering. Vance made it crystal
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  Speaker 4: clear that this administration not only believes that American taxpayers
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  Speaker 4: have been robbed for years by massive fraud schemes buried
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  Speaker 4: deep inside of our federal programs, and now he says
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  Speaker 4: the days of looking the other way they're over. At
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  Speaker 4: the White House round table with state attorney generals and
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  Speaker 4: federal officials, Vance announced at the administration's Anti Fraud Task
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  Speaker 4: Force has already identified and recovered up to one hundred
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  Speaker 4: and sixty billion dollars connected to fraudulent payments, fake reimbursements, contracts,
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  Speaker 4: and abuse of taxpayer funded programs. The Vice President laying
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  Speaker 4: out a list of exactly what's happened in just the
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  Speaker 4: first two months.
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  Speaker 5: In just two months, we exposed billions of dollars in
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  Speaker 5: benefits that had been stolen from the American people. We
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  Speaker 5: referred over twenty two billion dollars in fraudulent small business
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  Speaker 5: loans back to the Treasury for collection. We've deferred more
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  Speaker 5: than one point three billion dollars in fraudulent medicaid reimbursements
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  Speaker 5: that we're coming from various states, particularly California, we put
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  Speaker 5: a six month hold on enrollments for new hospice and
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  Speaker 5: home healthcare providers because so many of the newer hospice
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  Speaker 5: providers we're not actually providing hospice services, but we're just
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  Speaker 5: focused on frauds. We're going to cut that out for
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  Speaker 5: a little bit and try to get to a place
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  Speaker 5: where we can actually certify that the people providing hospice
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  Speaker 5: services are actually providing those very necessary and important services.
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  Speaker 5: We recover taxpayer funds from the one hundred and thirty
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  Speaker 5: five billion dollars stolen after the floodgates were open. In
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  Speaker 5: the immediate aftermath of COVID, we have found six point
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  Speaker 5: three billion dollars in suspected fraudulent government contracts which were
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  Speaker 5: mostly awarded during the last administration, and that has stopped.
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  Speaker 5: And finally, we've blocked sixty million dollars in student aid
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  Speaker 5: fraud that should have gone to young people trying to
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  Speaker 5: get an education, but instead we're going to fraudsters. And
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  Speaker 5: I think the theme here of the Anti Fraud Task
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  Speaker 5: Force up to this point has really been that we're
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  Speaker 5: protecting two classes of victims.
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  Speaker 1: Here.
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  Speaker 5: We're protecting the American taxpayers who shouldn't have their money
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  Speaker 5: stolen by fraudsters. And of course we're protecting the people
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  Speaker 5: who need these services. Fraud is not a victimless crime.
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  Speaker 5: This is not somebody gets to make some money for
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  Speaker 5: violating the law and otherwise it's not a big deal.
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  Speaker 5: This is people who rely on critical services, students who
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  Speaker 5: rely on student loan services, sick people who who rely
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  Speaker 5: on hospice care, a number of small businesses who rely
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  Speaker 5: on the availability of these loans so that they can
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  Speaker 5: grow their business and hire people. All of these people,
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  Speaker 5: all of our fellow Americans, have been taken advantage by fraudster,
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  Speaker 5: and the task forces here to stop it.
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  Speaker 4: Now, let's just dive into some of these numbers for
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  Speaker 4: a moment. One hundred and sixty billion dollars. Now, according
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  Speaker 4: to Vance, this isn't just isolated fraud. He described it
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  Speaker 4: as a systemic abuse that stretched across the healthcare programs,
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  Speaker 4: COVID relief funds, student aid, and government contracting. Now, one
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  Speaker 4: of the biggest examples that he highlighted was one hundred
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  Speaker 4: and thirty five billion tied to alleged fraud involving post.
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  Speaker 4: That means, after COVID relief programs Vance argued that the
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  Speaker 4: speed of pandemic spinning created the perfect environment for criminals,
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  Speaker 4: shell companies, and organized fraud rings to steal massive amounts
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  Speaker 4: of taxpayer dollars. He also pointed the twenty two billion
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  Speaker 4: in fraudulent small business loans and that program money that
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  Speaker 4: was literally supposed to keep legitimate American businesses alive during
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  Speaker 4: the pandemic, but instead the money flowed to fake companies
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  Speaker 4: and straight up scammers and then came one of the
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  Speaker 4: most shocking examples involving healthcare. Van said investigators uncovered approximately
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  Speaker 4: one point three billion and fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements, with much
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  Speaker 4: of that activity concentrated and you guessed at liberal California now.
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  Speaker 4: The Trump administration said, these fake providers, these fraudulent billing operations,
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  Speaker 4: and sham healthcare businesses were siphoning off taxpayer dollars while
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  Speaker 4: real Americans struggled with rising health care costs. The Vice
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  Speaker 4: President also highlighted investigations in the hospice and home health
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  Speaker 4: care fraud schemes. In recent weeks, the administration froze new
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  Speaker 4: Medicare enrollments for some hospice and home health care agencies,
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  Speaker 4: while the investigators audited the providers suspected of operating the
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  Speaker 4: fraudulent facilities altogether. Now, according to the Trump administration, some
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  Speaker 4: of these operations allegedly build the government for patients who
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  Speaker 4: either didn't qualify for services or in many cases may
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  Speaker 4: never have receive legitimate care at all. Another major headline
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  Speaker 4: from the roundtable also involves suspected fraud in federal contracts,
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  Speaker 4: and this is where they say the new frontier is
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  Speaker 4: probably going to be. The task force says it is
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  Speaker 4: flagged approximately six point three billion in questionable government contracts
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  Speaker 4: involving potentially fraudulent businesses. Vance argued that Washington became too
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  Speaker 4: far comfortable with handing out taxpayer money with little or
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  Speaker 4: no accountability, and he said the administration is now using
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  Speaker 4: aggressive audits and new AI technology to identify suspicious spinning
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  Speaker 4: patterns and much faster than they ever had before. And
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  Speaker 4: that goes back to even the fraud that we're witnessing.
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  Speaker 4: On another level, student aid fraud. Money's supposed to mean
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  Speaker 4: that students can go to college and better themselves, have
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  Speaker 4: a better life, get a better education, and become great earners. Well,
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  Speaker 4: now we know, the administration, says investigators have already uncovered
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  Speaker 4: more than sixty million connected to fraudulent student aid claims.
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  Speaker 4: Another example, the Vice President said used to argue that, hey,
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  Speaker 4: taxpayer funded programs, well, they're basically just piggybanks for anyone
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  Speaker 4: that wants.
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  Speaker 3: To get a paycheck.
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  Speaker 4: And this is all because the oversight systems have failed
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  Speaker 4: for years. And that's exactly why the President and the
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  Speaker 4: Vice President said they're going to continue to fight on
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  Speaker 4: this issue. It's also very interesting to see how many
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  Speaker 4: attorney generals were in the room for the roundtable, making
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  Speaker 4: it very clear that the President and the Vice President
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  Speaker 4: are going to be working state by state to get
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  Speaker 4: rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse and lock up
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  Speaker 4: those they catch stealing from the American taxpayer.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
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  Speaker 2: you listening to this podcast right now and for more
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  Speaker 2: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
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  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here tomorrow.