Trump's Swamp Has No Bottom: New Swimmer Ripping Off Taxpayers for Self Interest Gain

X's are gone. New one (bottom left) is Seema Verma

(Chief, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS)

(X's: Price, Zinke, Pruitt, and Shulkin. On thin ice: Mnuchin, Ross,

Carson & Elaine Chao (Mitch McConnell's wife)

Politico Exclusive with this powerful and explosive headline:

   

 “Seema Verma: Key Trump health official spends millions on  
                   GOP-connected consultants for her own PR profile ”                                   

Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a member of the coronavirus task force, spent more than $3.5 million taxpayer dollars on GOP-aligned consultants to improve her personal public image.

This story is based on a Congressional Democrat’s 53-page summary, shared with POLITICO and released on Thursday (September 10) that states: “Seema Verma and her top aides abused the federal contracting process to Administrator Verma’s benefit and wasted millions of taxpayer dollars.”

In essence, the investigation — conducted by Democrats across four congressional committees — found that Seema Verma surrounded herself with a rotating cast of at least 15 highly paid communications consultants during her first two years in office.

Most disgusting part from this hypocrite: That was as she publicly called for fiscal restraint and championed policies like work requirements for Americans on Medicaid (health insurance for low-income people).

Specific Examples of her Fiscal Abuse:

When Seema Verma, the Trump administration's top Medicaid official, went to a reporter's home in November 2018 for a “Girl's Night” thrown in her honor, taxpayers footed the bill to organize the event: $2,933.

When Verma wrote an op-ed on Fox News' website touting President Donald J. Trump's changes to Obamacare, taxpayers got charged for one consultant's price to place it: $977.

When consultants spent months promoting Verma to win awards like Washingtonian magazine's “Most Powerful Women in Washington” and appear on high-profile panels, taxpayers got billed for that too: more than $13,000.

Those efforts were steered by Pam Stevens, GOP communications consultant and former Trump administration official working to raise the brand of Verma.

The prices were the amount a consulting company billed the government for her services, based on her invoices, which were obtained by congressional Democrats.

Those examples are among the revelations included in the sweeping congressional investigation chronicling how Verma spent more than $3.5 million on a range of GOP-connected consultants, who polished her public profile, wrote her speeches, Twitter posts, and brokered meetings with high-profile individuals — billed taxpayers for connecting Verma with fellow Republicans in Congress.

Verma, who advised then-Gov. and now VP Mike Pence in Indiana on health policy before joining the Trump administration, strongly rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing in her consulting practices.

In October 2019, Verma told a House committee: “All the contracts we have at CMS are based on promoting the work of CMS and the spending was consistent with how the agency has used resources in the past.”

Continues at the Politico Exposé link:

My 2 cents: She has to go and ASAP – resign or be fired. This is disgusting just the stories linked to all the others (faces above) involved in fraud, corruption, and ripping off the taxpayers and again underscoring the “best people ever” con that Trump used and promised the public the kind of people he would hire. 

Clearly, their thinking and actions were: Government is the Golden Goose for us get or stay rich while in office.

What a joke all that has turned out to be proving that this is the worse administration in history and especially since the Teapot Dome scandal and then Watergate – all Republicans, too, BTW. 

That scandal biggest until Watergate was not just about profits and corruption. It was about geopolitics, anti-progressive ideas, and Washington party politics – now recurring again under Trump. 

Thanks for stopping by.