A red herring is
a
deliberate or inadvertent distraction intended to divert attention away from a
central issue or mislead someone onto a false trail.
The term is commonly used as a rhetorical device, a logical fallacy, or a
literary plot point.
Donald Trump made over $2.2 billion during the first year of his second term.
- Improper Payment Rates: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pegged the
national Medicaid improper payment rate at 5.09%, representing
$31.1 billion in erroneous federal outlays.
- Broader Estimates: Independent research organizations, such as the Paragon Health
Institute, argue that the true loss is much higher. They estimate that
improper federal Medicaid payments reached nearly $1.2 trillion over
the past decade, suggesting an actual improper payment rate closer to
25%.
(Paragon Institute)
- Enforcement Recoveries: State-level Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs), monitored by the
HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), successfully recovered $1.4
billion from criminal convictions and civil settlements in FY 2024.
Recent
Major Takedowns and Enforcement (2026)
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
announced a historic, coordinated enforcement action that charged 455
defendants. The operation targeted schemes responsible for more than $6.5
billion in false claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid.
·
State Funding Freezes:
In July 2026, CMS and the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force froze over $1
billion in federal Medicaid funds to California ($867 million) and Minnesota ($199 million). The
funding was deferred due to systemic fraud vulnerabilities involving in-home
care services, hospice programs, and billing for deceased enrollees.
·
·
Pre-Payment Savings:
The shift toward blocking suspicious billing before payments go out resulted in
$4.1 billion in direct Medicaid savings last year alone.
Miami
healthcare executive Philip Esformes was convicted of orchestrating what
the U.S. Department of Justice Philip Esformes touted as the largest individual health
care fraud scheme ever prosecuted.
Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of
Columbia/HCA in 1997, after the company pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicare,
Medicaid, and other federal programs in what was at the time the largest
healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history at $1.7 billion. Following his
departure from Columbia/HCA, Scott became a venture capitalist and pursued
other business interests.
Scott ran for governor of Florida in 2010, defeating Bill McCollum in
a vigorously contested Republican primary election and Democratic nominee Alex Sink by just
over one point in the general election.
Scott was reelected in 2014, again by just over one point,
against former governor Charlie Crist.
He was barred by term limits from
running for reelection in 2018 and instead ran for the U.S.
Senate.
Scott won the 2018 U.S. Senate election, defeating incumbent
Democrat Bill Nelson in
a close election that triggered a mandatory recount. He was reelected in 2024, defeating Democratic nominee Debbie
Mucarsel-Powell by over 12 points. He
became Florida's senior senator in 2025, when Marco Rubio resigned
from the Senate to become Secretary of State.
Let’s compare notes:
Philip
Esformes was
convicted of orchestrating what the U.S. Department of Justice Philip Esformes touted as the largest individual health care fraud scheme ever
prosecuted.
****************************
After being impeached for the first time in
2019, Trump ran for office again in 2020 – and was DEFEATED by Joseph Biden. He
lost by a total of 7,000,000 votes. Even today, he still will not admit defeat.
*************************************
Let’s talk about the emolument
clauses.
The Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses are among the oldest
federal anticorruption safeguards. Both clauses apply to the president, who is
exempt from many other government ethics rules.
The Foreign Emoluments Clause bars
the president and other federal officials from accepting “any present,
Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or
foreign State” without the consent of Congress. It reflects the framers’ desire
to prevent federal officials from succumbing to foreign influence.
The Domestic Emoluments Clause provides for the president to receive a fixed salary and bars him from receiving “any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.” It was designed to insulate the president against undue pressure from Congress or any individual state.
********************************************
President Donald Trump officially accepted the luxury
Boeing 747-8 jet from the Qatari government on May 21, 2025. After
undergoing a series of security upgrades and interior retrofitting, the
aircraft was unveiled at Joint Base Andrews on June 19, 2026, and made its
maiden flight with Trump on July 1, 2026.
The
plane was valued at $400 million.
- Estimated Upgrade Cost: The Air Force
estimates the security and communications retrofitting for this interim
luxury 747-8 (gifted to the U.S. by the Qatari government) will cost less
than $400 million. However, defense and political
critics estimate the modifications could ultimately cost closer to $1
billion.
The
Next-Generation VC-25B Fleet (Purpose-Built Boeing 747-8s)
- Contract and Overruns: The long-term Air Force One replacement program—which consists of
two brand new, heavily modified jets—was originally awarded to Boeing in
2018 under a $3.9 billion fixed-price contract.
- Total Program Cost: Years of delays, engineering challenges, and supply chain issues
have driven Boeing's cost overruns to more than $2.8 billion, pushing the
total expected cost of the program to over $5 billion. Despite these
overruns, the Air Force maintains its fixed contract limit protects
taxpayers from taking on the burden of the extra costs.
***********************************
According to the
Presidential Greatness Project, Trump is the worst president that we have ever
had, so I don’t need to tell you how to vote in future elections.
https://presidentialgreatnessproject.com/
You can learn a
lot from cartoons.
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