The dystopian man who lives in the House that Enslaved People Built campaigned that he would reduce inflation (not), eliminate “fraud waste and abuse” and address immigration issues through mass deportations. He can’t fix inflation by attempting to bully Fed chairman Jerome Powell, who is justifiably standing his ground until his term ends as Chairman of the Fed in May 2026. If he chooses to be a thorn in the side of the man who appointed him, he can stay on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors until January of 2028.
The President’s promise to end “fraud, waste and abuse” meant that he had his chainsaw carrying toady, Elon Musk, slash his way through government agencies, laying off or firing thousands, eliminating critical programs, and generally creating havoc until the bromance ended badly. Hell has no fury like a billionaire scorned.
Children are starving all over the world, but especially in Gaza where the evil annihilator, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is limiting food aid to Gaza and denying that children are starving there. The media visuals of little children with ribs protruding, young boys scrambling to collect flour, and mothers crying with anguish as their children languish in their arms would touch even the hardest of hearts, except for Mr. Netanyahu, who declares that there is no starvation in Gaza. Even our President, not well known for his tender heart, has challenged his crony on this matter. If our President is so concerned, though, why has he authorized the destruction of life-saving food because, thanks to cuts in USAID, there was no way to distribute the food before its expiration date in late July.
About 500 tons of food, valued at $793,000, would have fed at least 30,000 children. Instead, US taxpayer dollar funded food was either used as landfill or incinerated, costing another $100,000 in disposal costs. Fraud, waste and abuse, anyone?
A month or so ago, the State Department destroyed $10 million worth of birth control supplies purchased by USAID for women in developing countries. The supplies included birth control pills, injectable contraceptives, IUDs and other forms of birth control. Stored in warehouses in Belgium, the January 2025 foreign aid freeze included this birth control, valued at nearly $10 million. Several global agencies, including Planned Parenthood International, offered to pay for the distribution of these products, but our government refused, choosing to incinerate the items instead, at a cost of $167,000. Some had a shelf life of several years, possibly good until 2027 or later. This administration would rather light a match to useful birth control supplies, incinerating the hopes and dreams of women internationally. This administration embraces and, instead celebrates fraud, waste and abuse when it fits their ideological purposes. A bipartisan group of legislators, including Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski (R), and New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen ID) opposed the wasteful destruction, but it happened anyway! More fraud, waste and abuse from an administration that promised to eliminate it.
The attacks on science and research are also examples of fraud, waste and abused. One of the most egregious cases is that of Dr. Uri Manor, won a grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders. His research looked at ways the hearing impaired – about three percent of the population — could be better included in the workplace. Dr. Manor, himself hearing-impaired, was also conducting experiments on ways to restore hearing. He had a five year grant and spent about $1.5 million, but his grant was abruptly cancelled because of the anti-DEI stance this administration has taken. A judge has ruled that the cancellation of the brant is illegal, and the matter is now bogged down with legalities. Some of Manor’s team have been laid off, and his research has been detailed. Millions of dollars into important research Manor’s work and his years of effort are now up in the air. Fraud, waste and abuse, anyone?
There are hundreds of other cases of research suspended in the name of “efficiency”. For the researchers impacted, and for the millions of us whose quality of life could be enhanced, this is nothing more than fraud, waste, and abuse.
Food and birth control products incinerated. Valuable research halted. The very administration that says they want to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse is causing it, lighting a fire to taxpayer dollars, golfing through crises, as myopic as Nero, fiddling while Rome burned.
