audio version of the segment here > Schumer and the Dems still playing games with Obamacare
Jay Weber Show transcript 12-5-25
This is infuriating: Many listeners know that every federal agency is supposed to have some sort of ‘watchdog’ within it. Some little office or ‘feature’ that is supposed to be looking out for the public. It is supposed to be catching any fraud or waste or wrongdoing within that department-And, of course, they never do. These jobs, like virtually every other job in DC- have been corrupted and have become completely useless over time.
Well, this week, we learned that the ‘grand pooba’ of all of them- the government accountability office- tried to ‘scam’ Obamacare- as a test in 2024 and 25…and found that…oh, yeah. Anyone can scam this system. Yep. Ripe for fraud. But. They didn’t tell anybody.
We can only assume that for either all or most of the 15 years Obamacare has been in place. With it’s exchanges and portals open…that the GAO has been running this test. And finding fraud. And saying nothing. I admit-this is just me assuming this.
Because-the way we found out about the incredible ease with which Obamacare can be scammed….is house republicans specifically asked the govt accountability office. Otherwise, it’s leaders were going to continue to sit on the information.
Now- how rancid is that: the official federal watchdog agency knows that ‘just about anyone’ can scam Obamacare if they are willing to lie on a few forms…and they don’t tell anybody. This is another open portal for fraud that our govt officials knew about--and said nothing--and did nothing. But…only because a few House Congressman specifically thought to ‘make the right request’. Yesterday the Gao said. Yes. And this is tens of billions in fraud.
The American people are -rightly-upset at the billion or more in fraud that was bilked from we taxpayers by the Somali community in the Twin Cities. This is tens of billions of times worse. The sort of fraud that the Gao has been finding-for years- related to the Obamacare exchanges is tens of billions of times worse!
And the feds haven’t done anything about it? It was just…kind of…never going to come up…unless the republicans asked the right questions?
Oh, fraud? Is there massive fraud in Obamacare? Oh, yeah. It’s so easy to cheat that system is ridiculous. It has failed 23 out of 24 tests we ran in the last two years alone, yeah. Why do you ask, senator?
Really? It turns out that a) Obamacare exchanges are plagued with fraud…and b) our government watchdogs and -presumably- the HHS and IRS have known about it…. but…eh.
Just because republicans asked, the Gao confirmed…. Obamacare’s tax credit system is plagued with fraud. This is probably what’s going to happen- at least short term- as republicans scramble to deal with a ‘political’ problem for them: they look mean if they let these overly generous and fraud-ridden tax credits expire.
And so, far, neither party has an alternative plan. The democrats don’t because they just want the fraud and waste and taxpayer buggering to continue. And the republicans don’t because half of them want to fix this, end the fraud, and then move to reform the program….and the other half are just squishes who don’t want to lose their jobs if voters get angry at them for it.
This is where we are now, less than a month after the democrat’s silly shutdown. It was concerning to hear that trump and his team were simply going to extend these Biden-era tax credits for at least another year or two. And basically, punt on the entire thing until after the 2026 election…
The White House is providing congressional republicans with few specific demands on what kind of health care legislation trump might support here. That’s giving some republicans heartburn about how they will prevent a dramatic spike in some health premiums next month.
Senate finance chair Mike Crapo (r-Idaho), who is leading the effort to draft a bill, said the White House is generally “engaged,” without making demands. And in the senate, of course, any bill is going to have to get 60 votes, meaning any successful bill will need to get at least 7 or 8 democrats to go along with it. That doesn’t leave us much hope for an actual reform bill.
My hope is that trump and republicans don’t make things worse by doing nothing…and then actually try to punt until 2027- when they may not even have control of the house, anymore. Then only lefty expansions to Obamacare are going to be proposed-and trump might be willing to sign them.
I’d love to see actual Obamacare reform as part of a reconciliation package next spring…with republicans proving that they can fix a health care system-and a health insurance system-that the democrats broke.
Now is the time-under trump- to try to get us back to more of a free-market based health care and health insurance system…and less of a socialized medicine system. It’ll be pathetic if trump and republicans punt, all-together.
Understand that this end of the year scramble is just to find a temporary solution to the subsidy’s cliff. Republicans should be serious about fixing or killing off Obamacare with a series of reforms-next year.
And as for the incredible amount of fraud that is now being discovered and focused on in these programs- And it appears to be- across the board- as in- virtually all our federal welfare programs are being wildly defrauded and abused-
Eddie Scarry from the Washington examiner is right when he says: this is the government you get when democrats and bureaucrats are in charge.
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