government waste

[Babagounj]

California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell report shows

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy detailed the missed deadlines and stretched budget for the long-running project.

nypost.com

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened Wednesday to pull federal grants for California’s High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) after it spent nearly $7 billion in taxpayer funds over a decade and a half without laying a single foot of track.

In a 310-page report, Duffy detailed the missed deadlines and stretched budget for the long-running project — and gave the Golden State’s high-speed rail office until July 11 to respond or get around $4 billion in additional grants cut off.

“This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget,” he said.

 

[Babagounj]

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/06/05/congress/house-legislation-sba-sanctuary-cities-small-business-immigration-00390801

The bill, H.R. 2931, would codify administrative action that SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler debuted in March that congressional Republicans were aligned with. As part of that action, Loeffler said she would move regional SBA offices out of six “sanctuary cities” — Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City, and Seattle — “to less costly, more accessible locations that better serve the small business community and comply with federal immigration law.”
The legislation passed 211-199.

 

[Wally]

California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell report shows

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy detailed the missed deadlines and stretched budget for the long-running project.

nypost.com

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened Wednesday to pull federal grants for California’s High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) after it spent nearly $7 billion in taxpayer funds over a decade and a half without laying a single foot of track.

In a 310-page report, Duffy detailed the missed deadlines and stretched budget for the long-running project — and gave the Golden State’s high-speed rail office until July 11 to respond or get around $4 billion in additional grants cut off.

“This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget,” he said.

Follow the money. Many political donors have their hands in the cookie jar.

7 billion seem like enough to builds a railroad?

 

[newfie]

this should be interesting. time to see what fraud has taken place with our social security money

DOGE can access sensitive Social Security records, Supreme Court rules

The liberal justices dissented as the high court lets the cost-cutting team scour massive databases on Americans.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Babagounj]

this should be interesting. time to see what fraud has taken place with our social security money

DOGE can access sensitive Social Security records, Supreme Court rules

The liberal justices dissented as the high court lets the cost-cutting team scour massive databases on Americans.

www.yahoo.com

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jun/6/feds-paid-80-billion-bogus-social-security-numbers-covid-19-pandemic/

Federal agencies paid out nearly $80 billion in pandemic money to applications that used stolen or invalid Social Security numbers, according to a new watchdog report Wednesday that said it should have been easy to stop them.
The watchdog said basic steps, such as asking for applicants to provide birth dates and then running their names, numbers and dates against Social Security databases to make sure they all matched, could “readily” have prevented the potential fraud.

 

[vantexan]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jun/6/feds-paid-80-billion-bogus-social-security-numbers-covid-19-pandemic/

Federal agencies paid out nearly $80 billion in pandemic money to applications that used stolen or invalid Social Security numbers, according to a new watchdog report Wednesday that said it should have been easy to stop them.
The watchdog said basic steps, such as asking for applicants to provide birth dates and then running their names, numbers and dates against Social Security databases to make sure they all matched, could “readily” have prevented the potential fraud.

I wonder how much individual payouts were? Did individuals apply over and over with various bogus SS#'s to receive hundreds of thousands or even millions?

 

[newfie]

I wonder how much individual payouts were? Did individuals apply over and over with various bogus SS#'s to receive hundreds of thousands or even millions?

I've seen stories that a lot of the fraud that has hit SS and covid relief came from overseas appliants which shoulld have set off huge flares.

 

[vantexan]

I've seen stories that a lot of the fraud that has hit SS and covid relief came from overseas appliants which shoulld have set off huge flares.

Yet our government was asleep at the wheel. The bureaucrats tell us government can't be run like a business and that we just don't understand how government works. From what has been exposed I'd say the sooner we get rid of the bureaucracy the better.

 

[newfie]

Yet our government was asleep at the wheel. The bureaucrats tell us government can't be run like a business and that we just don't understand how government works. From what has been exposed I'd say the sooner we get rid of the bureaucracy the better.

i think one of the things these issues seem to highlight is our government does not have basic controls in place and does not do any cross referencing of available date.
that may be long term where these wiz kids can help them get the controls in place.

 

[Babagounj]

I wonder how much individual payouts were? Did individuals apply over and over with various bogus SS#'s to receive hundreds of thousands or even millions?

How much of this fraud was sent to the Big Guy thru backdoor channels ?