OPINION:
Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 15 might just as well have been replaced by the three monkeys of the “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” parable.
That the seven Democrats apparently had little or no interest in protecting American taxpayers from being ripped off for billions of dollars was made clear by their being shamefully AWOL from the hearing, “Exposing Fraud in America.”
Retiring Sen. Gary Peters, Michigan Democrat, the ranking member of the committee, attended the hearing briefly before departing, but the other Democrats on the committee — Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Andy Kim of New Jersey and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan — were no-shows.
Just as an aside, Mr. Fetterman’s absence was particularly disappointing because, on other occasions and issues, he has been the only Democrat willing to buck the reflexive, far-left Democratic Party line.
The Democratic side of the semicircular dais was conspicuously vacant as the committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, heard from three witnesses: independent online journalist Nick Shirley; James O’Keefe, chief executive of O’Keefe Media Group; and Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, acting vice president of policy and government affairs of the Project on Government Oversight.
When Mr. Paul called on Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, to ask whatever questions he might have for the witnesses, fellow Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio interjected that, ordinarily, it would be a Democrat’s turn, in the traditional fashion of members of the two parties alternating in the questioning.
“If there were a Democrat here, yes,” the Kentucky Republican replied.
“So, there’s no Democrats present at a hearing about fraud,” a bemused Mr. Moreno said.
“There doesn’t appear to be a great deal of interest across the aisle,” the committee chairman shrugged.
Mr. Shirley recounted what he and his fellow whistleblower David Hoch had discovered when they looked into a network of supposed daycare centers in Minneapolis, most of them operated by Somali immigrants and subsidized with federal funds.
Most infamous among them was the embarrassingly illiterate and mercifully now-defunct “Quality ’Learing’ Center,” which Shirley alleged was an empty-shell entity with no children and even less learning taking place.
Mr. Shirley subsequently also exposed what he described as “widespread daycare and hospice fraud in California” hiding in plain sight — fraud that has been allowed to rip off untold millions, if not billions, of Medicaid dollars.
“When we talk about fraud, we are talking about money stolen from hardworking, law-abiding, taxpaying citizens,” Mr. Shirley said in his opening statement.
“This issue has nothing to do with political parties, because no dollar says ’Republican’ or ’Democrat’ on it. When a fraudster commits fraud, he or she steals from all of us,” he added. “The worst part is that fraud affects the most vulnerable and needy, as they rely the most on government services.”
That message should have resonated with the Senate Democrats, had they been there to hear it.
Instead, Mr. Peters’ opening statement reflexively condemned several actions of President Trump’s administration before concluding: “Mr. Chairman, we share the goal of saving taxpayer dollars and making our government more efficient. And when you are ready to bring in federal officials to testify, conduct oversight, and advance additional legislation to crack down on fraud, my colleagues and I are ready to do the work.”
Still, the Democrats’ appalling absence from the hearing, which was not the first time Democrats had boycotted a hearing they did not like, strongly suggests otherwise.
Almost as shameful as the Democrats’ obvious indifference to the massive waste, fraud and abuse in federal programs examined at the hearing was mainstream news media’s abject failure to report on it. It was as if the billions of dollars stolen were of little consequence — or newsworthiness.
Using the search terms “Senate committee,” “fraud” and “Shirley” on three search engines — Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo — this reporter found that the only major news media outlet to report on the hearing was, not surprisingly, Fox News.
Still, the committee posted the full 107-minute hearing online. It can be viewed here: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/hearings/exposing-fraud-in-america/.
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