[ExI] why do we still need mainstream news media?

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> 
…

 

>… went into public records, found payments being made to public daycare centers, went there, found buildings marked as daycares and “learing” centers, asked the obvious questions: where are the children?  That isn’t a fact, it is a question.  Hey, inquiring minds want to know.  …spike

 

 

 

Reason is buzzing about the Shirley video.  They had an interesting take on it today.  They were explaining why Medicaid keeps having these problems even though they have been playing whack-a-mole with scammers for well over a decade:

 

The Minnesota welfare fraud story is really about Medicaid's broken system <https://reason.com/2025/12/30/the-minnesota-welfare-fraud-story-is-really-about-a-broken-medicaid-bureaucracy/?utm_source=Reason+Magazine&utm_campaign=a757e77c1a-reason_brand%7Cnew_at_reason%7C2025_12_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_31d7ef7f57-a757e77c1a-587965146> 

 

Reason’s take can be summarized by these two paragraphs:

 

 

First, it incentivizes states to come up with new Medicaid programs—for every dollar that state lawmakers agree to spend, t <https://www.cato.org/blog/medicaids-funding-formula-rewards-overspending-fuels-fraud> hey get several "free" dollars from the federal government to help pad the budget. In Minnesota, for example,  <https://www.kff.org/medicaid/state-indicator/federalstate-share-of-spending/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D> only 42 percent of Medicaid spending is funded by the state.

 

The second problem is that states have  <https://www.cato.org/blog/it-was-someone-was-stealing-money-cookie-jar-they-kept-refilling-it> little incentive to police the Medicaid spending they oversee. Governments are always bad at spotting fraud because they are spending other people's money, but the Medicaid matching grants double down on that problem: Most of the dollars being spent are not just someone else's money; they are coming from another government's budget.

 

 

 

 

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