Today on Sekulow, we have breaking news as the Department of Justice announces a huge fraud bust. with over 450 indictments. Keeping you informed and engaged.
Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host.
Welcome to Sekulow Will Haynes in studio today, and we've got a jam-packed show for you today. You're not gonna wanna miss it. Go ahead and like, subscribe to the channel, and share it.
So we can get the word out on this. This just happened as we went live. The Department of Justice unveiled. A $6.5 billion healthcare fraud crackdown. This isn't a replay.
This is another round of indictments in other healthcare fraud schemes that the DOJ hasn't covered with the partners over at HHS. This is against 90 medical professionals and targets. A range of alleged healthcare fraud schemes. There are more than 450. I believe the total number quoted by the U.S.
attorney on site during the press conference they just held was around 455. indictments in this. four hundred fifty five. This is what has been described as the department's largest coordinated anti fraud effort to date. We have seen some other numbers in the past where you've seen 300-plus indictments.
There was a 427 defendants charged back in 2017.
So it shows that the work of the DOJ and the HHS and the various executive branch departments are going after this fraud still. But it also comes up at a very interesting time with you see the media focused on things that either are they're trying to tear down the administration or they're trying to say things aren't going to work. We'll get into all that. But as we are going live, like I said, I'll reiterate for you: 455 indicted. Charged with fraud.
This includes 90 medical professionals and targets that range from healthcare fraud schemes such as wound care and opioid distribution. It also includes what officials say is a record number of Medicaid fraud defendants, with more than 100 people accused of submitting over $100 million in false Medicaid claims. The operation spanned 57 federal court districts, 45 U.S. states and territories, 46 state Medicaid fraud control units. And they have seized.
More than $127 million in cash, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and other assets. We're going to break all of this down as we go. But folks, This is what the American people want to see. At a time where there's fighting over amounts of money being spent on restorations and ballrooms and things of that nature. When you are seeing Another $6.5 billion healthcare fraud crackdown.
This comes on the heels of, remember, just last year, there was a $14.6 billion health care fraud crackdown. We have seen things like what's going on in Minnesota, what's going on in California. This is what the American people want to see. They're tired of their money being stolen. You can't even get to the policy issues.
at hand. When it comes to things like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, all of these programs that the American people want to see preserve for future generations, but you can't even talk about reform. when you're looking at how much is being stolen from them. What's there to reform at this point? As far as we know, they also may be fine if you take out all the fraud.
We're going to break all this down, what it means, and what the media is saying about it in the segments ahead. You're not going to want to miss it. We're also going to play some sound from Attorney General Blanche, as he was on site, as well as RFK Jr., who was on site in this press conference where they just unveiled this. But folks, you want to get in this conversation early. Tell me what you think.
Is the government doing what you want them to do when it comes to fraud? Call me at 1-800-684-3110 to talk to me on air. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow Will Haynes in studio today. And folks, if you want to talk to me on air, call me at 1-800-684-3110.
I'm the only one in studio today. I have Rick Rinnell coming up a little bit later. But we're talking about what just happened with the Department of Justice unveiling this new $6.5 billion healthcare fraud crackdown. This is 455 indictments, 455 charges against among this 90 medical professionals and targets that arrange from healthcare fraud schemes such as wound care and opioid distribution, includes a record number of Medicaid fraud defendants with more than 100 people accused of submitting over $100 million in false Medicaid claims. We're talking about this.
We've also talked about the $14 billion that happened last year where they uncovered it. These are very large indictments that they're doing at one time, but it also goes to show that they are continuously working on this, that it takes time for them to investigate and root out all of this fraud. It also begs the question of why we weren't seeing this much to this scale under previous administrations. We do know that it's not like that the Trump administration never cared about this. Back in 2017, they did something similar in his first term.
412 defendants were charged with $1.3 billion in alleged losses.
So a high number of defendants, but not as much money taken as we see here. This also, we see that there was in 2024 193 defendants charged. This is a problem in the United States. We know this. One thing that I've said is that.
The Expansion of Medicaid and Medicare that happened under the Obamacare scheme. Yeah, it is this is the fruit of it. We called out, we were saying that, okay, that was the biggest number of people that were able to get on health insurance under Obamacare was the expansion of Medicaid. That was the basis. It wasn't the individual mandate.
It wasn't the exchange program. It was through Medicaid. And what we're seeing is how many, now that we've had time to have investigative reporting on this, you're seeing how many, even those numbers of people that got onto Medicaid were fraudulent. They were sometimes people that had no idea they had health care. Because of the way that this, there were so few checks and balances, so few fraud determining mechanisms that they could catch this before it happened.
That in the end of the day, what Obamacare ended up doing was drive up your health care costs as well as steal your money. You're getting hit twice as an American taxpayer because the health care costs for everyone went up. In many cases, you didn't get to keep your doctor as Obama promised. And you're seeing now that it was so ripe for fraud. They were just able to go in there and just take money.
And that's what we're seeing, and they're finally cracking down on it. But I think that even the crackdowns, if there are not real legislative reforms that come after to fix the loopholes that these fraudsters are using, they're clearly going to keep doing it. That's a problem. This is a country that has trillions of dollars in debt. that the Republicans and Democrats in Congress can't come together on anything.
There's no foreseeable foreseeable future with a balanced budget. They're going to keep spending, but on top of that, How are you ever going to get to those problems when what we have right now? Is a system that allows people just to steal and steal and steal and enrich themselves off of your money. That's fraudulently taken. But I also think that it's the media doing a disservice to us as well.
Because what have you heard about? For weeks now. About The reflecting pool. And I mean, the daily from the New York Times did a whole expose on it. We don't know if this is going to work.
We don't know where this money is going for. Is this a waste of money? It cost $14 million, which is a lot of money. I mean, for anyone. here in this studio watching this broadcast.
A lot of money for an individual, but for restoring a monument sounds about right. Obama tried to fix it. George W. Bush tried to fix it. Reagan tried to fix it.
It's a very old piece of concrete. that has had many Presidents try to fix it. It was leaking in bad disrepair. To completely rebuild it, is what a lot of people have said would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
So $14 million, they tried something. And everyone is celebrating what may be a failure, what may not be a failure. There's some vandalism, but that's front page news.
Okay. at the Washington Post. That's leading nightly news broadcast with sending anchors. to the reflecting pool to report on this. Is this news right here, this DOJ crackdown, is it the front page?
On Washington Post right now? No, not on their website. Iran cast doubts on nuclear inspections. Vance said would happen.
So, trying to ding the administration on that. Um In the trending articles, you see, they're talking about a record heat in France. Rooftop Solar Subscriptions Reflecting pool ducks COVID vaccine study, Kennedy Center, and McDonald's fried apple pie. Where's this? The Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services taking down $6.5 billion in healthcare fraud.
What's this Reflecting Pool Duck story? I'm interested, right? Because It's trending on Washington Post. That's got to be a big deal, especially when there's something out there about the government taking down $6.5 billion in healthcare fraud, 455 people. The ducks have got to be a bigger deal if that's trending, right?
Here's the headline from that. I'm going to click through. doing this in real time for you. A dead duck was seen in the reflecting pool. Then two more were found nearby.
Someone Was paid two people actually. This is two people on this byline from the Washington Post. to write this Article It took two journalists Quotes. Journalists. To right.
A dead duck was seen in the reflecting pool, then two more were found nearby.
Meanwhile, There's nothing on their website about this fraud. This is a good thing for every American. I don't care what age. The social background. Your income status.
This is a good. News story. This is positive. It's negative that. $6.5 billion was stolen from taxpayers, but it is a good news story that the Department of Justice and the Health and Human Services Department are going after fraud in our government.
Waste, fraud, and abuse. That's part of the reason that President Trump was elected. Even if you didn't like a lot of his policies, or you didn't like his personality, or you didn't think he was conservative enough, or you didn't think he was liberal enough, or whatever. People were excited by the fact that someone was finally saying. Maybe we should look at all the waste fraud and abuse in our government.
And what were we told? Doge is bad. It's going to kick people off their health care. They're going to lose their government benefits. There's no real fraud problem.
We see indictments. It's fine. Nothing to see here. How dare you shut down USAID? There's no way that it was funneling money to places and things that no American would want to fund around the world.
How dare you? How dare you? How dare you? And they filed lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit. To get things shut down, to slow the work down, to stop it effectively.
Yeah. But the government didn't stop, and the agenda didn't stop to go after fraud. And we're seeing that, and that's a good thing. That's something to celebrate. As we sit here on the precipice of the 250th anniversary of this country, A legacy item would be something where you are able to drastically.
expose the fraud in this country And wipe it out as much as possible, fix the loopholes, and also put fraudsters on notice that it's not an easy payday. That that's a good legacy item. But meanwhile, we are getting headlines from the Washington Post about a dead duck. One. Seen in the reflecting pool, and then two others were found nearby.
So, this true crime story from the Washington Post is about three dead ducks. That's the mystery of the decades.
Meanwhile, 455 indictments were announced this morning. I keep refreshing the page, hoping that this will pop up somewhere. That they have someone writing about this because this is a big story. The reflecting pool is peanuts compared to that. Yeah, it it that may not have worked.
The reflecting pool, right? But it also, the people that are championing and celebrating a failure of something that's trying to make something look better. in saying you wasted $14 million of our taxpayer money.
Well, why don't you talk about the 6.5 billion that was being stolen from you? Because One drastically outweighs the other. I'm going to take your phone calls starting in the next segment. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you.
Do you think this is a good thing? Or do you think I'm overblowing this? Is this something I got excited when I saw this in our team? We were like, oh, this is really good news. They're doing this again.
It's not even a one-and-done headline like a few weeks ago when they announced a big fraud crackdown. This keeps going.
So let me know. Call me at 1-800-684-3110 or leave a comment on YouTube or Rumble. And if you can, support the work of the ACLJ at aclj.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. Will Haynes here.
I'm about to get to some phone calls because I think.
Some of you are as fired up as I am today about this situation. I just can't get over the duck story at the Washington Post. It really. Is hysterical because talking about making a mountain out of a molehill. The amount of waste in our government, if they are going to pinpoint one thing and try to say this reflecting pool is the worst thing that's ever happened.
as they have been trying to do for weeks now. It's just absurd and it makes you laugh in a way, but makes you sad in another way. But I did want to bring this up real quick. If you watched yesterday, We talked about this student in Washington State. She's in the High Line Public School District.
in Washington State. And this is now the third time that she has been. Singled out. Really, for her beliefs in the school district. And we've had to fight for this young Christian girl since she was in second grade.
She's in sixth grade now. We fought for her in second grade when she was subjected to these authoritarian searches of her backpack every single day to make sure she wasn't bringing in contraband. But was that contraband? Bible verses on a piece of paper. Gospel tracts.
Singling out a second grader, imagine that for something. that i is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States. And then she was told she can't say Jesus at school. Just earlier in this school year. And then finally, she was forced to attend an assembly.
It was called an inclusion assembly. But um it wasn't Just an inclusion assembly. And when she said, Hey, some of this makes me very uncomfortable. One teacher said, Okay, yeah, you don't you don't have to attend. I guarantee you, if they had a, I don't know, like a Trump rally in a school, which I don't think they would in Washington state, and students said, This makes me uncomfortable, they'd probably be able to opt out.
But instead, they she said, Hey, some of this makes me uncomfortable. Can I? not be in here. She left, was able to leave from one teacher, and then another. teacher forced her back in, and said, You don't have a choice.
And this girl was forced to remain in there as she wept. Thinking that she was going to get in trouble, or she'd be in trouble, or just knowing that she was being forced to violate. her beliefs by by attending We're on that. We're going to talk about it more tomorrow. We'll have Christy Campagnone join us.
She has been helping this family since the girl was in second grade.
So she'll be able to give even more context. She knows this family very well at this point. And we are so grateful that we can help this family and this brave girl for standing up for what she believes in. since she's in second grade. I mean, just the fact of that, the school district's trying to crush her in many ways, of saying, hey, Don't Don't stand up for what you believe.
Don't talk to your friends about your beliefs. But She is brave enough and courageous enough to say, No, I know what's right. I'm going to continue to do this. We are so grateful that we can stand alongside this family, but we can't do it without you. The ACLJ members and champions.
If you're a champion, you have a set it and forget it donation that you know every month you want a certain amount of money to go to the ACLJ. to continue fighting for girls like this. And you can go to aclj.org/slash champions, and you can be one of those champions that's standing alongside this middle school girl who is extremely courageous. She is the hero of this story. She knows That she can stand up for her faith, and she also knows that an organization like the ACLJ has her back.
And what does that mean? It doesn't just mean the people here talking on air or in the studio over there. It means the attorneys, it also means you. ACLJ champions or one-time donors to ACLJ.org. You're standing with her.
You are the backstop. holding her up as she is courageous. in what is extremely difficult years for a young girl. Middle school. Everyone talks about how difficult middle school is.
It's almost a joke that you survived middle school. Right now, imagine that it's not just all the social issues with your peers and the disagreements and the changes you go through as you're growing up and becoming more mature and learning about life, and you're not a little kid anymore. But also you have this administration coming after you nonstop.
So We're standing up for. They have until the 25th of this month, June 25th, to respond to the very forceful letter that was sent to them that includes things like: hey, Three strikes and you're out, folks. This is the third time you've come after this girl.
So stand with her and support the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. I want to get to a phone call here in this segment. I'm going to keep coming Through this as we go. Let's go to first, Jim from Maryland on line four. Jim, you're on Sekulow.
Okay, good afternoon. It's good to hear you guys. I was elated when I turned on your show and heard about the fraud indictments. But like every other American, what I think we're really waiting for is to hear about the indictments of our traders and uh Criminal politicians that we, the people, elected and put in office. People like Ilhan Omar.
Ocasia, Cortez. They've all been shown to have earned all this kind of money on a salary of, what, one hundred fifty thousand a year, I think the American people are waiting. They're elated at what you uncovered, what was uncovered by the. D O J, but When are these politicians going to start? Peace and justice.
Yeah, Jim, I know there's a lot of chatter around Ilan Omar and the net worth that seemed to grow very quickly. And then they tried to say, no, that didn't really happen. It was a mistake, an accounting error where all of a sudden we had a net worth of 30 million. Honestly, it's. It's up to the Department of Justice to look at things when there is evidence of a crime and go through the natural and proper process.
And I think that's also the key here: you don't want. Uh indictments that are are not Sound that won't go anywhere, and then it it disheartens the people anymore. You want the rule of law to stand. You want it to continue and be done the proper way. But it's also disheartening when you see things.
Like grand jury subpoenas that were issued surrounding. Governor Walsh of of Minnesota. Right? Former VP candidate. Can you remember that?
Or have you already forgotten about him? But a judge blocked DOJ subpoenas saying they were blatantly unlawful. They were political retribution. For his refusal to assist the immigration crackdown. I assume that these will be appealed to some degree, but.
It it's it's interesting when we know what we've seen thus far is that There are whistleblowers saying they knew about the fraud in Minnesota and would ignore it.
So, the DOJ is trying to uncover corruption and fraud of elected officials, but it's tough. It's a tough climate.
Some judges get political.
Some indictments get political. And a purely political indictment is not good either.
So if it's just done for that reason, not good. If the judge is just saying it is that, that's not good either. It's a tough place to be right now, Jim. I understand your concern. I understand a lot of Americans' concern that get disheartened when they think they see rampant corruption.
I mean, we're even hearing about Senator Gallego right now using campaign cash to pay his mother-in-law as a babysitter. and using campaign cash to go to Disney. That doesn't sit right with the American people.
So, hopefully, a DOJ will look into all these things. We'll be back with more Sekulow after this break, but support the work of the ACLJ at aclj.org or become a champion today. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow's second half hour.
We're talking about this. Breaking news item from the DOJ. Indicting 455 individuals in a $6.5 billion health care fraud scheme. And it wasn't just one, it was across 41 states. This wasn't one giant conspiracy of 455 people.
It's a lot of different things that all came together at once. But I want to go to Larry. from California on Line five. He picked up on something I said earlier, and I think he disagrees with me.
So I wanted to give him some time here at the beginning of the second half hour of the show to go over that.
So Larry, you're on Sekulow. Hi, how are you doing? Doing well. Great, great. Yes, I just wanted to go over something here that you said.
Not necessarily a disagreement, but possibly a twisting. I don't even know if it's a twisting or maybe just like. not understanding But I'm going to go back to the Obamacare. Sure. And usually, I'd like to have discussions.
And you sound like you're very well versed in history because usually I don't have discussions with people unless they're educated in history. I appreciate that.
So the user, I don't go here, I listen and I said back. Um you're all familiar with Romney Care, right? Sure. In Massachusetts. It was the everybody taught it that as the best thing.
It was a role model, correct? It was a role model for the country. You recall that, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I know Romney Care.
I know the whole history there. The individual mandate was the individual mandate, was actually first thought up by Heritage Foundation. Let me finish, though. Yeah, go for it. I agree.
Let me finish. What The Obama administration did, do you know the person that crafted Romney Care? That's who Obama brought in. Going against Some of The Democrats. That he brought that in and said, but this is going to work for the whole country.
Right.
Okay, so you're, am I right?
So, so what he did is when he was implementing that, remember there were Democrats that didn't really like that. But they went with it, and he said this was the best thing, even though a Republican came up with it.
So, Larry, let me hop in right there. I'm not disagreeing with the history of that. And if you've watched this show, I mean, we were very vocal during it. We did point to the comparisons of Romney Care.
Now, the difference is that is on a state level, a lot less people. To put onto a system to try to scale that to the US. That was one of the big criticisms that, on a state level, that's one thing, on a national level, completely different. Here's what I said earlier, though. And I want to point this out, and this tracks with what we said.
I mean, over 10 years ago, now, well over 10 years ago, during the Obama years, if you paid attention to this broadcast, I was executive producer on this broadcast then. I wasn't on air, but I was helping craft the content that was being said.
So I was a part of that discussion.
So I'm very well aware of what was said on this show. Is that Uh The main mechanism for getting people on health insurance during the Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, was not the health care exchanges and subsidies. was not the individual mandate. Which was, to your point, the individual mandate originally created by the Heritage Foundation and touted by people like Newt Gingrich. I didn't agree with it even when it was coming from them.
But that's a personal opinion. But. Here's what we said back then, and what we said now. The largest amount of people that were brought into healthcare, while they touted the millions of people got healthcare under Obamacare, was not the individual mandate and was not the healthcare exchanges. It was the expansion of Medicaid.
It was changing those numbers upwards of people that could get on government health care. single-payer system. It was adding to those roles. We also said that is the most ripe area for fraud. And now that is coming true.
And this is not just me saying this. This isn't just trying to tie Obamacare to something. This is when you're looking at studies that came out just last year. That shows that 6.2 million people were improperly enrolled. in these programs.
They sometimes had no idea. They sometimes were losing tax credits. This was a big boost for the insurance industry, but not for the American people. And that has been a consistent talking point. I don't care if you're left, right, or center of this broadcast since that discussion.
And I know because I was here.
So Larry, I appreciate you calling, and I don't disagree with your history lessons on it. They are factually correct, but what you're missing is that we were saying the same thing then as we're saying now. We'll be right back on Sekulow with Rick Rinnell. Welcome back to Sekulow. Will Haynes here.
I'm joined now by Rick Brunel. And Rick, I want you to bear with me for a minute because I'm going to paint a picture for you. And I think. I think I've got something, but you'll be able to tell me if this is a good analysis or not.
So. I was talking earlier because there was this indictment that was just announced by the Department of Justice, HHS, for $6.5 billion in Medicare and Medicaid fraud, 455 individuals indicted. And I was making the point earlier that This is a big deal. This is something that the American people voted for, rooting out fraud. This is a lot of taxpayer money.
I think people forget how big a billion dollars actually is. That's. You know, we talk in trillions now, but just the fact that this is another indictment. This is good news for the American people. It's sad that they were able to do this, but good news for everyone.
I don't care your politics that they are rooting out this fraud. And I was making the point that I went over to the Washington Post website. And there was nothing, I would scroll down as far as I could, nothing about this breaking news story. They held a press conference about it. They only have things like Iran cast doubt on nuclear inspections, Vance said would happen.
And they had a trending article that said reflecting pool ducks.
So I'm like, well, I got to know about these ducks. That's clearly bigger news than fraud, right?
So I went down to the ducks and I found out, and you may not have known this, but you should, Rick, that a dead duck was seen in the reflecting pool. And then two more were found nearby. That's the headline of a Washington Post article: nothing about the fraud. At the same time this is happening. You have Disney trying to ask the FCC to call the view.
A bona fide news program, a news that And I know a lot of people would be like, that's ridiculous. The view isn't a news show. But when We're comparing it to a newspaper that their headline is a dead duck was seen in the reflecting pool. Maybe the View is a bona fide news program. We just don't know what news is anymore.
It's trans news. There we go. It's completely different. I mean, shame on Disney for even asking. The question of whether or not we should be characterizing the view as news.
I mean, just. It's common sense. You look, it's like always four or five against 0.5. It's literally never a real discussion about politics or the news. And it should be.
I mean, I don't know what they're afraid of. They always have to stack the deck with all sorts of crazy, lefty arguments. And then the one person that they get on there is beat up and doesn't get nearly as much airtime. But they like it that way because they're afraid of a full-on debate. Look, I think when it comes to these problems in the media, And really the constant attacks on President Trump and him trying to fix whether it's the Kennedy Center, which I know well, or the reflecting pools, or the fraud that's existing in our federal budget.
All of the problems that Washington, D.C. has, there's a whole crowd there. And I wouldn't just say that it's Democrats, it's a lot of Republicans, too. They like to have the problems exist because it gives them power. It's a power play, right?
If they are the center of Thinking about the solutions rather than the solutions being implemented and the problem going away, then their power decreases. And so politicians in Washington, DC, Want the problem to exist because it gives them authority and power, and they're the center of activity of people coming to them asking for money or partial solutions. But I think the biggest issue that we have in Washington, DC. Is a bunch of people who don't want to fix problems because then, if the problem goes away, they lose their power.
Well, and and I think What is frustrating as an observer, as someone that does this broadcast, that talks about these things too, is that. We like to see results. That's why this excited me this morning, seeing this big announcement of another fraud indictment. This is on the heels of other very large takedowns of fraud schemes. You've seen what has the federal government forced the hand of California to admit there was a fraud problem and go after it.
The stuff in Minnesota exposing it, where at first, oh, it's just some weirdo YouTuber doing this, and then, oh, no. This is a really big deal. These things excite me. Problem solving excites me. That's because the ACLJ, as you like to say, is about results, not about just talking into the ether.
And that's even where we just had a caller before you got on. I feel like we get trapped in this binary choice of left or right, red or blue, so often that. I was talking about how uh that Some of my frustration as we see how easy fraud became. as a result of Obamacare. The Medicaid expansion was really what got the numbers of insured.
It wasn't the exchanges, it wasn't the individual mandate. And it was as if the the caller was trying to get me in a gotcha. Like, well, that was modeled after Romney care and all this stuff. And I'm like, I One, if you've watched this show, you'd know that we were consistent back then as we are now. That is not a gotcha.
I understand the history of Romney care, the difference between a state and federal government, all of these things. But I feel like we've lost our ability to look for nuance and we only want. uh yes or no based off of a political side. And that's The most scary thing about all of this. I talk about the media a lot, not as a, I like to just hit on the New York Times or Washington Post, but really that we are losing something as a country when we can't have real reporting or real nuance that is given to people.
Yeah, look, I think the theme is that common sense is gone, and that's not a partisan. Uh, statement that's just common sense is gone. For instance, you look at the two states that have the most fraud right now: it's Minnesota and California. And the governors of both of those states are big, loud personalities who go unchecked. Because the fact is, is the attorney generals in both of those states Are not holding the governors to account.
The Attorney General in California was appointed by Gavin Newsom. Uh to fill a seat. And that is his buddy. And so there's no investigations going on of the California budget. And then you look at Minnesota.
And you have a very far-left radical attorney general who thinks that the lefty governor is not going far enough.
So it's a recipe for disaster. Common sense is gone. And I think that the American public and voters in both states need to say: look, we need to have a check and a balance on the system. Let's vote for that. Rick, before we go, I did want to get your thoughts on where things are with the negotiations with Iran.
Obviously, Because it's still a negotiation, you're going to see conflicting statements by both sides. They haven't signed a final deal. The media is loving to point out these differences. That's their favorite story angle here: oh, both sides that are in a negotiation are saying something different because they haven't agreed to final terms yet. As if that's breaking news, water is wet, you know, kind of thing.
But what are your thoughts on where we are at this stage, how the vice President's doing, as well as the Secretary of State headed to the Gulf this week, also for meetings? Look, I think it's really important to remember that the media is a business and they thrive on clicks and crises. When things are going well, they don't want to print a story that says everything is going well and we're solving problems. Nobody clicks on that story. And so it's just not something that they want to do.
So I would ignore the media right now during this Iran negotiation period. What I'm encouraged by is the polling around this: people in America are so tired of war, they want solutions. And this seems like a good common sense solution. We got to hold Iran to account. It's verify all the way through.
It's not going to be easy. But it never is, and we need to make sure that we're pressuring the Iranians to comply and that the agreement has a framework that shows them how to comply or face consequences. Rick, thank you as always for joining us. We'll talk to you again later in the week, but we appreciate everything you bring to the table when you join us on this broadcast. Folks, as I mentioned earlier in the broadcast, we We talk on here about things of the day.
We talk about constitutional issues and legal issues and political issues that face Americans. And we give our perspective on it. We give analysis on it. We try to be honest, as honest as you will see on anything. about what's going on.
Whether that takes nuance. We are not afraid to call out people on our ideological side of the aisle, if you will, the conservatives, as well as people on the other side. We will just tell you Our analysis and expert analysis at that. But we also fight very, very hard for everyday Americans. Bringing them one of the best law teams in the country, I'd say the world, because we have.
We fought globally as we have global offices. We've had fights at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. all the way down to local cases in state jurisdictions. The ACLJ will fight for those. That may feel like they have no one.
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Go to aclj.org. Welcome back to Sekulow, final segment of the broadcast. I'm going to get right to your phone calls. I've got two lines open if you want to try to join us, 1-800-684-3110. But I've got some great calls I'm about to jump into.
But I wanted to give a little bit more information as we've covered a lot today about even what I was saying about the Obamacare fraud situation. This is not including all the medical device payments, all this other billing and things that have been able to just go rampant during all this fraud that we're uncovering, but that I argue was enabled by the expansion of Medicaid Under Obamacare. But this is just from uh June 2nd of this year. That is 21 days ago. Right?
This is in the Wall Street Journal, and it's talking about this study from Paragon Health Institute, which is a think tank about health issues. It says that Paragon estimates that at least 6.2 million This year. Are improperly enrolled in heavily subsidized Obamacare plans. That's little changed from last year, so about the same amount. And roughly 25% of all signups.
25% of all signups are improperly enrolled. A quarter. It's 6.2, and that's the same as last year. Taxpayers will fund up to $25 billion in improper subsidy payments this year because enrollees or insurance agents misstated income to qualify for bigger subsidies, et cetera. There's a lot more to go in to this.
But The whole Program. was ripe for fraud, And so it's not just the subsidies that the American people are paying. It's the fraud we're paying as well. Plus How much more health care costs now? It has risen dramatically.
You couldn't keep your doctor.
So many people exited the field because it was absurd.
So, when I say that a lot of this fraud, all these indictments are tied to Obamacare. That's not me making a political statement against anything Barack Obama did, as I think the caller was trying to pull out. It's just saying that we called it like that back then, that this is going to be ripe for fraud. And It's one of those, like, I don't want to say I told you so on this because it's not good for anyone. There's not a single person that benefits in this country.
From this, except for fraudsters, but hopefully now, not even they are benefiting because they are going to prison. All right, let's go back to the phones. We got Joe in California online two. Joe, you're on Sekulow. Hey, good morning.
Thank you for taking my call. It's the first time I. called into your show, but I've listened for quite a while and I enjoy it. My question is in I I don't want to seem racist or any kind of prejudice. But with the World Cup here, and it's great.
There's a lot of foreign people here that have discovered a lot of things about the U. S. ranch, Chick fil A sandwiches. Oh, it's one of my favorite things, seeing how much people are celebrating The non-New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Disney, Las Vegas America. Like, that's what I think the world thinks America is, but the real America, they're loving it.
So keep going, though. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's great. And they're probably finding the same frustrations we are that Chick-fil-A is not open on Sunday. You know, a hot day after church, you want a chicken sandwich with some waffle fries and a large refreshing lemonade, and you can't get it.
So I'm sure they're finding that frustration. Sure. But my question is. With this. six plus billion dollar broad scheme that was reported I live in California, Central California.
We own a real estate and construction company. And we come across A lot of foreign people that are doing great and doing well. They're business owners. We come across. A lot that you're wondering, how can you afford this on a dentist's salary?
Um A lot of what we see, I know, is fraud. California is filled with fraud. Fires, Flooding, they wanted to give them two proposals: one for FEMA and then one for the cost of what the construction would really be.
So I know there's fraud everywhere, but with this New discovery. Has anybody ever thought of checking to see? How many Foreign And these are about 400 plus that were found indicted. Joe, I'm going to jump in here because I'm going to get to a couple other calls. But I think, one, you're looking at 455 across 57 different federal court districts involving 46 state Medicaid fraud control units.
So that's basically the whole country. I don't think here, and as I said earlier, this isn't a one conspiracy. This is just they were able to unleash all this at one time. I don't think there's a through line on any sort of like immigrant group, as I think is what you're asking. I actually think it's a little bit of a disservice.
That the Uh what we saw. Um coming from Minnesota. That it was only focused on the Somali community. Obviously, there was an issue there within the Somali immigrant community where they had found the daycare system was able to easily access these funds. And it also made an easy talking point from the left of saying you're just a xenophobic because you're going after all Somalis.
I think that does a disservice to what the DOJ is doing here because I think it is so widespread that it is equal opportunity fraud. It is not just one community or such that has decided this is the way to do it.
So I think it's also, we need to be careful about that, not falling into that trap of thinking, oh, if it was happening in Minnesota, this fraud everywhere is just one immigrant community. In reality, I think it is so heavily exploited by so many different people from all sorts of backgrounds, a lot of them that are just Americans that were born here. That's how bad this is. And that's why it's got to be rooted out at every level. But thank you for your call, Joe.
And maybe one day we'll be able to get some Chick-fil-A sandwiches and some Polynesian sauce on Sunday. Let's go ahead and go to Triz from D.C. You're on Sekulow. Hi. Hi, everybody.
How are you? We're doing well. Listen, you d you know what? I'm a senior. But I want you to know I worked forty three years.
I was a workhorse, and I want people to understand your one accident or one diagnosis from your life being turned upside down. It is unbelievable that you're talking about this this morning. I told the young lady that took the call, I am a victim. I am a victim of what you're talking about. And I know there's many more seniors.
You would not believe the doctors that said I've been in their office, I haven't. These doctors put notes, different things in your notes, your medical notes, And then they tell you something verbally. Do you not know I have $3,000 in counting coming out of my Social Security disability check? I asked for the ledger for Medicaid. Oh my God.
There are doctors on there I don't know nothing about. All they have to do is send it to Medicare, but somebody inside is doing something. Do you understand me? I hear you. We've only got a minute left, but you know what's unfortunate is that you're not the only one.
Is that I feel like you're gonna be more of the pattern? The more they dig into this, is that people are just exploiting people that worked hard their entire life. And that's where I say you can't even get to the policy portion of this. Sherry, I couldn't get to you, but you're saying, will spending cuts really harm America's seniors? I don't think so, because you have to root out the fraud and then actually pay for the people like Triz that worked hard to get that Medicare benefit.
Yeah. It would cost a lot less money if you're not paying all these fraudulent things. Root it out, get back to the basis, then have your policy fights, but we can't even get there right now. Because of how much is being stolen from you, me, and people like Triz that called from DC. Thank you so much for calling, folks.
I'm sorry I couldn't get to every call today, but I appreciate you calling in today. We'll be back tomorrow with more on Sekulow. But if you can become an ACLJ champion today and stand with those that we need to fight for, go to aclj.org.
