A Nebulous Strategy
I’ve been operating under the assumption that the Trump administration’s interest in cracking down on “fraud” in how states spend federal funding that is dispersed for programs like Medicaid, Medicare and the federal nutrition program SNAP was just another excuse to punish President Trump’s critics and perceived political foes.
Social services fraud was, after all, the justification the administration used when it flooded Minnesota with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as it made headway with one of the primary goals of Trump II: terrorizing blue cities as part of its mass deportation agenda. Mix in some far-right influencers’ racism aimed at the Somali refugee community there and you had all the ingredients Trump need to seize the moment.
As the American public began to turn on Trump’s deportation regime post-Minneapolis, Trump appointed vice president JD Vance to be his “fraud czar,” an appointment Vance has used to investigate and withhold funding from blue states for supposed concerns about social service fraud. Again, just another way to continue punishing the elected officials who criticize him and the Americans who did not vote for him.
But the whole fraud fixation is apparently also part of a convoluted and nebulous midterms campaigning strategy for Republicans, I learned after reading this new piece from Politico today.
Let me back up a bit. Republicans have been struggling to explain to Americans that they both care about, and are doing something to address, the affordability crisis in America. That is, in part, because they have not really done anything to address it. (To be fair, establishment Democrats are not doing a great job at connecting with voters over the currently unlivable state of the economy either, which is part of the reason we’ve seen the surge in popularity for progressive populist left-leaning candidates among primary voters.)
Republicans worked with Democrats to pass a federal housing overhaul bill that addressed issues like the rising costs tied to new construction, but Trump made sure that the bill became law with no fanfare due to his obsession with getting the SAVE Act passed ahead of the midterms. The Republican Party’s other legislative accomplishments have mostly benefited the rich (extending Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy) or cut social safety net programs (gutting Medicaid in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill). But Republicans, apparently, think that these kinds of cuts to programs that help America’s most vulnerable, under the guise of addressing “fraud,” are a winning campaign strategy.
Per Politico, the GOP is hoping that the House will revive efforts to pass another party-line reconciliation package that could include “cost savings by rooting out so-called government waste and fraud” in Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP. They reportedly hoped that Vance’s remarks this week calling on Congress to help him in his efforts to root out fraud and abuse in safety net programs would help with that effort.
Basically, House Republicans think that rooting out fraud will resonate as a win with voters in tackling the affordability crisis, rather than what it actually translates as: more cuts to programs that low-income and disabled Americans rely on to survive.
Here’s Politico:
Many Republicans believe the fraud issue will have salience with voters amid larger concerns about affordability, since it would ostensibly involve returning lost funds to government health programs.
Lawmakers spent months discussing ways to tackle the matter, including hosting multiple hearings and meetings with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz to convince moderates and vulnerable GOP incumbents that their constituents would not misconstrue such efforts as gutting key social services.
…
Yet with less than 100 days until the midterms, Republicans who were eager to go home to their districts for August recess and fold significant fraud wins into affordability messaging have little to show for it. And some now admit they are at a loss for whether there’s any campaign promise on this topic they can make and truly keep.
If Republicans want to tell Americans who can’t afford rent and groceries that they’re dealing with the problem by making more cuts to the government programs that help people afford health care and food, that’s fine!
GOP Islamophobia Watch
Speaking of Republicans’ winning campaign strategies … earlier this week I wrote about two of the racist, ineffective messaging threads that Republicans are running with this campaign cycle since they have nothing to campaign on — besides gutting Medicaid, apparently. One of those is resurrecting the party’s post-9/11 era Muslim panic. Another is trying to do a red scare. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) got really creative and weaved the two together <3
Here’s how Fox News Digital wrote about it:
The Senate GOP’s elections chief said Michigan voters have a clear-cut choice: pick a Trump-backed Republican or support an insurgent progressive who is “for Hamas.”
“By going with [Dr. Abdul] El-Sayed, you’re talking about socialism, Marxism, communism, and someone who seems to just not like America,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital. “The only thing he’s not against, Hamas. He’s for Hamas, but he’s against America.”
Dem Senators Have Questions for Markwayne Mullin
In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin this week, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) revealed that DHS planes were being used as an “in-house private jet service for Trump administration officials” for people outside of the department, like FBI Director Kash Patel. They ask Mullin to provide them with more information about how the planes were acquired and requested that the DHS secretary sell them and return the money to the American taxpayers:
It has come to our attention that the Department of Homeland Security (“Department” or “DHS”) is effectively running an in-house private jet service for Trump administration officials with a slew of new luxury jets and other airplanes it has acquired and begun providing to officials over the last year. This includes providing jet services not only for DHS officials like yourself, but also for White House Border Czar Tom Homan, other administration officials, members of the first family, and even the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel. In total, DHS has acquired 12 new aircraft, including 5 extravagant new luxury jets, using funds provided in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). These jets were acquired and provided for officials’ use, even though no authorization was ever provided by Congress to buy any airplanes, much less to support executive travel.
If You Read Anything From TPM Today, Read This
Josh Kovensky has the details on the Justice Department and DHS spending months surveilling Minneapolis civil society in a bid to make the Trump administration’s delusions about Antifa real, according to allegations laid out in a new court filing: DHS Spied on Churches, Libraries, and Union Halls in Minneapolis Protest Crackdown
Yesterday’s Top Story
We Finally See the Trump Administration’s Sweeping Census Power Grab Emerge
What I’m Reading
CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues
Trump-aligned board votes to put his name on the Kennedy Center — again
Basically, House Republicans think that rooting out fraud will resonate as a win with voters in tackling the affordability crisis, rather than what it actually translates as: more cuts to programs that low-income and disabled Americans rely on to survive.
Becoming Snidely Whiplash seems to be what all GQP apparatchiks aspire to these days:
ETA: And, they think it’s what most folks wanna vote for.
That’s hysterical, since their fearless leader has insisted affordability is a Dumbocrat hoax.
Way too many quotes out there that should be relentlessly re-broadcast by every Democratic candidate for House and Senate.
This needs to be a total focus issue.
I heard Seth Moulton talking about the USS Abraham Lincoln travesty (and about the Iran debacle in general) on the NPR this afternoon. This is more or less how I’d like to hear Dem politicians present themselves: Moulton did not hesitate to call out the Trump admin’s poor execution of the Iran war, and noted that Hegseth seems to be more worried about his testosterone levels than he does about the welfare of America’s folks in uniform.