The State of California is seeking to pin the theft of $30 billion in coronavirus relief funds from the state’s Employment Development Dept. on former President Donald Trump.
The California State Auditor criticized the EDD for serious misconduct in 2021, according to Breitbart News:
“Californians are expected to apply for unemployment benefits and maternity leave reimbursement through the EDD. However, fraud and poor management have resulted in losses of billions of dollars. While legitimately worthy Californians wait months for the money they need, the EDD system has mailed unemployment checks to jail prisoners.”
“EDD did not significantly step up its fraud detection efforts for its unemployment benefits program until months into the epidemic, which led to payouts of nearly $10.4 billion for claims that it later discovered may be fraudulent, the study itself notes.”
Now that Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the new chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, has inquired, California is attempting to blame Trump’s purportedly ineffective federal leadership.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the state responded to the new congressional probe by shifting the blame:
In a four-page letter to Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, head of the state Employment Development Dept. Nancy Farias stated: “Unfortunately, the Trump Administration exhibited little interest in building (a) coordinated national response when these (emergency pandemic unemployment) programs were begun in 2020, leaving states to fight for themselves against a demonstrable pattern of sophisticated, multinational criminal syndicates at work.”
Ironically, Dems., not the Trump admin., insisted on using state unemployment systems to distribute coronavirus assistance rather than relying only on federal government checks. They were following the recommendations of liberal economists who intended to use increased unemployment as a kind of benefit.
According to The New York Times:
“Democrats suggested that Congress should concentrate on specifically targeted legislation that could be passed swiftly.”
According to Ms. Pelosi, “We asked the economists what truly can stimulate the economy rapidly, and they answered things like food stamps — because people would spend that quickly — unemployment insurance and refundable tax credits.” There must be a connection between what we’re doing and the coronavirus problem.”
Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stated on Wednesday that Republicans are disregarding fraud in conservative states while focusing their investigations on Democrat-ruled areas like California and New York.
California suffered the most from this type of fraud, while many other states did as well. Some have attributed this to the state’s vast population, while others have said that it is a result of the state’s dysfunctional, Democrat-run bureaucracy.
Comments are closed.