We have spent a lot of our recent posts about which state or city will go bankrupt first and the massive fraud that has been going on relative to government programs. But that does not mean that the potential class has not been up to its traditional incompetence, insanity, and screw ups.
1)So, let’s catch up with the shenanigans that continue to plague the country, with a concentration on some crazy insanity in California:
Despite spending billions and billions of dollars in failed attempts to fix the homelessness disaster in Los Angeles, the problem apparently has gotten worse.
New data shows that the number of homeless folks in LA and LA county has actually grown in the face of billions of dollars failing to address the problem.
The latest census of homeless folks in the city shows the number of homeless people living outdoors or in their vehicles went up 7.9% in the past year.
Much like the other day where we reviewed how New York CIty government spending on their homeless problem tripled in seven years but the number of homeless still went up over 70% during the same period, looks like the politicians in Los Angeles are just as inept. Total incompetence, billions of dollars spent and the problem gets worse.
2)But the homeless problem in Los Angeles is just one of a number of problems, many of which interact and make the reality of living in the city even worse:
Current Los Angeles Police Chief, Jim McDonnell, says the city police department needs to have 12,500 police officers on the job but currently only has about 8,600 on duty.
Thus, simple math says the police force needs to increase 50% to be at the needed level of law enforcement.
The current police staffing level is the lowest it has been over the past twenty years.
Relative to other major cities, the Los Angeles police force has only about half the number of police officers per capita relative to the New York City police force and Chicago police force.
The city’s budget estimates show that the force will continue to decrease so the current trend is likely to continue: more retirements, smaller recruitment, low morale, and likely more crime.
With the Olympics coming to the city in 2028, McDonnell has warned that he needs 3,300 additional officers to handle the crowds and problems the Olympics will bring to town.
What a mess. As the LA homeless problem increases, so does the related crime rate in the face of a smaller and smaller police force which will only get worse with the Olympics coming to town. No wonder that businesses and residents are fleeing this deterioration in the quality of life, making Los Angeles still a prime candidate to win the race to bankruptcy court.
3)And it does not look like the city is going to get any financial help to fix either problem from the state government, given how much money they are losing to corruption, fraud and incompetence via a SINGLE state government program:
A new report asserts that California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, is plagued with wasteful spending and outright fraud.
The report from the Pacific Research Institute proclaimed that taxpayers are financing “a program that has grown beyond the state’s ability to effectively manage it.”
Very powerful assertion and language, a state government that has a program that it cannot control.
And as a result, taxpayer money is subjected to criminal fraud, waste, and abuse.
Thus, the Federal government has at least temporarily blocked $860 million in funding to the state government.
The president of the institute, Sally Pipes, had some simple and direct advice for the state’s inept politicians: “If lawmakers could make only one thing happen this year, it should be eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse from Medi-Cal, which now covers 15 million Californians at a cost of $220 billion. The entire state budget for fiscal 2026-27 is $351.7 billion.”
Think about these last numbers: the Medi-Cal; budget is a whopping 63% of the ENTIRE state government budget, no wonder it is out of control
Back in the 1960s, Medi-Cal was created to solely help low income, senior, and people with disabilities pay medical bills.
But over time the state politicians have added pregnant women, able bodied adults under Obama Care, and eventually legal and illegal immigrants.
Now one in three Californians are enrolled in the program.
Ms. Pipes went on: “If fraud and abuse are cut from Medi-Cal, there would be so much more funding available to cover those who are truly vulnerable and eligible for the program. Today, many of the eligible cannot find a doctor because there is too much demand for too few doctors. As Robert Kennedy Jr., secretary of [health and human services], said: ‘Medicaid exists to serve vulnerable Americans—not to bankroll unsupported claims.’ Accountability must be restored.”
A famous line from the Seinfeld comedy TV show goes as follows: "So you want to be my latex salesman?” Current California governor, Gavin Newsom, wants to be the next President of the country.
And yet, the state he has ruled over for the past eight years is rife with homelessness, high taxes, high crime rates, high utility costs, high gas costs, fleeing businesses and residents, and now a single state government program that is unbelievably out of control and rife with fraud and waste. Not sure he could even be a good latex salesman.
4)Okay, California is a mess due to the ineptness and incompetence of the state’s political class. Let’s take a break from California:
Sylvia Luke is the lieutenant governor of Hawaii.
Well, at least for now she is the lieutenant governor since a Hawaiian grand jury has approved charges against her for alleged pay to play fraud schemes that date back to the Covid era.
Apparently, according to Breitbart, she had been the target of state and Federal investigations relative to campaign finance abuse.
She is accused of steering taxpayer Covid funding to testing sites in exchange for donations to her election campaign.
The 12 count indictment includes words such as “criminal conspiracy to commit bribery and falsifying candidate committee reports among other charges.”
And sadly, she wasn't the only one to get caught by the grand jury since five others were also indicted including politicians and government bureaucrats.
As we have mentioned often in our continuing series of posts, Government Fraud and Corruption, it is not just criminals that defraud the American taxpayer. Quite often, it is government insiders and politicians that defraud the country of taxpayer wealth.
That will do it for today: Los Angeles' woes continue with a growing homelessness problems despite spending billions of dollars for apparently no progress against that problem, the city does not have anywhere close to enough police forces to protect its citizens, a basic responsibility of any government entity, the California state government Medi-Cal program is so large and unwieldy it is a travesty of government waste and criminal fraud, and the second highest politician in Hawaii allegedly profited from her position.
Political class insanity at its finest: expensive, inept, ineffective, and fraud infected from all angles.
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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