Do you remember Eegore when I said I thought you could cut 50% of the government and within a little while, everyone would adjust and be fine? You disagreed.

The recent debacle in Minnesota where at least 18 billion was stolen is perhaps the tip of the iceberg.

https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/its-not-just-minnesota-or-just-daycares

Do you remember Eegore when I said I thought you could cut 50% of the government and within a little while, everyone would adjust and be fine? You disagreed.

The recent debacle in Minnesota where at least 18 billion was stolen is perhaps the tip of the iceberg.


 I still disagree.  My understanding is we were talking about Government staff specifically and there's no way we could reduce to those levels and even  have the Department of Energy sustain for more than a day or two.

 Less than 1% of US Government staff could cost the US taxpayer far more than 18 billion.  The dollar cost of fraud is not indicative of how many staff are needed to run efficiently.   Reduction isn't the answer to fraud, if anything lack of oversight due to staff reduction will cause more problems.  

 I just got back from a Naval base that builds submarines.  They are drastically behind because they can't get enough qualified welders/electricians, and 16% of them were let go by DOGE.  Hegseth stopped all cost of living from March - Nov for all blue-collar workers in the wage-grade scale so they weren't able to hire one person.  

 There's no way with the level of dysfunction at just 15-10% that the US would produce even a single submarine with a 50% reduction in staff.  You could shovel the full 18 billion to that Naval base, double it, then double that, and there still would be no more submarines if staff were reduced by just 30%.
 

Ok, maybe 50% was over the top but there’s a number we could do without.

Cut taxes by 25% across the board and force the departments to maintain service levels.

Ok, maybe I was wrong about 25%. Let’s make it 50%.


“A new scam has just been uncovered in Minnesota

Regular homes are being registered as assisted living facilities

- In Minnesota assisted living facilities have seen 2x the growth of other programs
- They are receiving 15x the payments of other programs
- Shell companies used to create some of the facilities
- The amount of new locations have exploded in Minnesota cities
- Many owned by known money laundering scammers

“This may look like your typical single family home but it bills itself as an assisted living facility and it receives a lot of taxpayer money.

Here in Minnesota the number of people getting help in assisted living facilities is up double the growth of other programs.

But here's the kicker, the rate of payment in this assisted living space is 10 to 15 times the growth in other programs.

We pulled the data on assisted living facilities in the Minneapolis area. Minneapolis, as you might expect, has a lot. 169.

- St. Paul, with a population of 307,000, has 83
- Brooklyn Center, 30,000 population, has 106
- Brooklyn Park, population of 84,000, has 181, more than Minneapolis a city five times its size.

But this assisted living facility puts this all in perspective. It's owned by a man indicted for laundering a million dollars in the Feeding Our Future scam.”

“These assisted living facilities received over $2.3 million in state money last year alone. A Minnesota Reformer article says he has been paid a whopping $49 million since 2016.”