Vermont is one of 10 states recently targeted by the GOP-controlled U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The effort is allegedly to eradicate fraud in the state’s Medicaid program. It’s mostly bogus. “Mostly” because it’s well-known Trump is out for retribution against “blue states,” defined as any state that voted against him in the 2024 election, for potential cuts in federal funding. Cuts in FEMA funding to blue states, like Vermont, has already happened. Meanwhile, the only red state to face a similar review of its Medicaid program is Nebraska.

Does Vermont have anything to worry about? Certainly. In any program serving almost 25% of the state’s population and spending $2.3 billion annually, there’s bound to be a few bad apples trying to get more than they deserve. States have internal systems in place for that reason. Recent examples, as noted by the Republican leaders of the House committee, include a $200,000 settlement that a Burlington mental health care provider, Eden Valley, had to pay for allegedly submitting more than 150 false records on 50 Medicaid claims. Another example cited felony Medicaid fraud charges against a Lamoille County couple for submitting false time sheets for caretaking by an unauthorized provider.

Those claims and others were caught and prosecuted by Vermont agents.

Does the GOP really think it’s going to find a significant amount of Medicaid fraud in Vermont — with a total of $1.45 billion in federal funds spent in 2024 serving 156,900 people — or is it snarky payback?

**********

We’ll let readers ponder that question, while taking the opportunity (since the GOP brought it up) to point out real waste. In that realm, the Trump administration is reaching historic levels of both waste and graft.

Watchdog groups and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have identified several areas of frivolous and scandalous spending, including:

• A March 2026 report from Open the Books alleging the Department of Defense spent $93.4 billion on contracts in September 2025 to avoid losing money that would expire if not spent by Sept. 30. Spending included $22 million on luxury food items like lobster tail, Alaskan king crab, and ribeye steak. Other details cited a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano the Pentagon bought for the Air Force Chief of Staff’s home; $5.3 million for Apple devices such as the new iPad; and an astronomical amount of shellfish, including $2 million for Alaskan king crab and $6.9 million worth of lobster tail — all in September.

Lobster tail is apparently a favorite of Hegseth’s Pentagon, the report said, adding the department spent more than $7.4 million on the luxury item in March, May, June, and October.

• A GAO reportfrom February 2026 found the Trump administration wasted up to $38 million by keeping nearly half of the Department of Education’s civil rights staff on paid administrative leave for nine months instead of allowing them to work.
• Former HHS Secretary Tom Price resigned after spending over $400,000 on private jets. More recently, in February 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel faced scrutiny for his alleged personal use of a $60 million government jet for “date nights” and golfing trips. And former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was ousted for, among other egregious wrongs, wasting $200 million for personal ad contracts and spending $172 million for the use of private jets during her one-year tenure.
• Trump is also spending about a billion dollars a day bombing Iran, even though he spent the first six months of his second term slashing government programs that provided needed services, allegedly because of his concern for the nation growing national debt, which has ballooned under his watch. DOGE did such a poor job, it not only disrupted needed government services, but increased spending — a lose-lose for American taxpayers.

Not mentioned under “wasted funds” is the obscene amount of graft and corruption attributed to Trump, his family, and this administration. The New Yorker reported the Trump family has potentially reaped $4 billion in profits by Jan. 2026 through his association as president, and while much of it is not illegal, it is unprecedented and erodes the citizens’ trust in government.

**********

It remains to be seen how much, if any, Medicaid fraud House Republicans will find in Vermont, but three things are certain: Vermont’s Medicaid budget is peanuts compared to national Medicaid spending, so any finding is more about politics than fiscal prudence; unless the GOP committee directs the same reviews for “red states” Americans should view this as a partisan act seeking retribution; and the waste going on under their committee’s noses within this administration is shocking in its scope and audacity.

No revelation there, just a reminder of the state of America’s politics under Trump.

Angelo Lynn