Former White House, DoED & DOL. Education, workforce, & government reform @InstituteCicero
DC/Annapolis
Joined October 2009
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Michael Brickman retweeted
15 of 15 New York Social Adult Daycares audited yesterday showed no record of a single meal, activity, or hour of supervision — just attendance sheets.
These daycares are receiving millions from our Medicaid system and providing NOTHING in return —this is FRAUD!
"Sign in sheets already had things filled out for tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday—they're already pre-filling out sheets and billing for people who haven't shown up yet!" —@CMSGov Deputy Administrator Dan Brillman
Michael Brickman retweeted
California hasn't built its bullet train because the state has required 130,000 pages of environmental reports, making absurd demands like:
• counting bumblebees one by one
• rebuilding woodrat stick huts
• hiring specialized dogs to sniff lizard scat
This appears to be just for criminal tips.
Under federal False Claims Act (Which @POTUS strengthened) , tips that lead to $ recovered mean whistleblowers can keep as much as 30%
President Trump announced a new federal fraud whistleblower incentive program that he says will pay Americans, including journalists, a 1% commission for reporting fraud and corruption involving taxpayer dollars.
"If you turn somebody in and you, let's say, report, and you find $1 billion, we are giving a commission to that person of 1%. It's a lot of money," Trump said.
Michael Brickman retweeted
President Trump announced a new federal fraud whistleblower incentive program that he says will pay Americans, including journalists, a 1% commission for reporting fraud and corruption involving taxpayer dollars.
"If you turn somebody in and you, let's say, report, and you find $1 billion, we are giving a commission to that person of 1%. It's a lot of money," Trump said.
Michael Brickman retweeted
You’re not going to believe this, but the governor of Maryland signed a deal that guarantees that if there’s a payout of more than $50 million in the state’s expected lawsuit against Hyundai Heavy Industries, the South Korean company that built the ship that rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge and destroyed it back in 2024, then half the money after a $50 million threshold goes to the companies that owned and operated the ship. Except . . . the U.S. Department of Justice is contending in court that the operators of the ship altered it to make it less safe, lied to the National Transportation Safety Board, and did everything possible to shift blame to Hyundai.
If you’re a Maryland taxpayer, why do you want any money that could be going to the state as part of a judgment or settlement going to the company that operated the ship?
Governor Moore, did you read the deal you signed?
Michael Brickman retweeted
“Well, to be honest, Elon Musk is paying the most money in the country right now with this SpaceX little job that they got down there in Southaven, you know what I’m saying. It’s a killing,” said Ray Massey, who also traveled from Gulfport, Mississippi, in hopes of data center work.”
One electrician had a message for Elon Musk about the work.
“Tell Elon Musk to stay, we love this money you’re giving us man,” the electrician said.
Shoutout @PrestonCooper93 for collecting the biggest tuition increases and their justifications. The best (worst) one:
"Paul Quinn College continues to maintain our model of tuition increases following the increase in the Pell rate"
@WilliamJBennett hypothesis = confirmed.
Michael Brickman retweeted
NEWS: 19 FORMER ECONOMIC AND NATIONAL SECURITY LEADERS ENDORSE THE BIPARTISAN PERMITTING REFORM BILL
Today, a group of former Cabinet members and White House principals across seven Democratic and Republican administrations sent a letter calling on Congress to pass BAAJA. Here are the signatories:
Janet YELLEN, Michael R. POMPEO, Steven T. MNUCHIN, Leon E. PANETTA, Timothy F. GEITHNER, Henry M. PAULSON, Jr., Robert E. RUBIN, Stephen MIRAN, Jared BERNSTEIN, Tyler GOODSPEED, Jason FURMAN, Glenn HUBBARD, Laura D’Andrea TYSON, Michael J. BOSKIN, Jeffrey ZIENTS, Jake SULLIVAN, Brian DEESE, Larry KUDLOW, Allan B. HUBBARD
Key highlights from the letter:
1. “We are not building infrastructure fast enough to remain globally competitive… The median time for a new power plant to move from an interconnection request to commercial operation has more than doubled, from less than two years for projects built between 2000 and 2007 to more than four years for projects built between 2018 and 2024.
2. China has built more high-voltage transmission in the last fifteen years than the U.S. has built in all of its history... In 2024, China accounted for 31.5% of global knowledge- and technology-intensive manufacturing value added, compared with 20.7% for the United States.
3. Federally funded or permitted projects require NEPA review, but private projects often do not, creating a threat of failure precisely where the government is trying to be proactive, strategic, and engaged.
4. A project that spends years awaiting approval must continue carrying development and financing costs while remaining exposed to rising input costs. The IEA reports that prices for utility-scale transformers increased 26% in 2024, while lead times for some transformers have stretched as long as six years.
5. Mining projects also face tremendous uncertainty: a 2026 study by researchers at the Colorado School of Mines found that permitting for modern mining projects takes an average of 5.5 years, rising to 8.9 years for contested projects. The U.S. currently has the second-longest mine development timeline in the world.
6. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act is the most significant bipartisan legislative effort that Congress has undertaken in decades to tackle these challenges.
7. BAAJA addresses key constraints stifling American industry by requiring interregional transmission planning, strengthening the federal backstop for nationally significant transmission lines, and creating a faster, more predictable process for connecting new generation to the grid.
8. BAAJA also makes permits more durable by imposing tighter timelines for litigation and limiting frivolous lawsuits that can halt projects indefinitely, while preserving community input and judicial review of substantive agency decisions.”
The letter was organized by @arnabdatta321 on behalf of @IFP and covered exclusively by the WSJ this morning.
Michael Brickman retweeted
BREAKING:
Rioters have broken into the synagogue on Burnouf Street in Paris and vandalized it.
Why would young students allegedly protesting against the poor state of France’s educational system attack a synagogue. Could there be more to these protests that the mainstream media is avoiding to tell people about? xitter.cf/BastionMediaFR/status/…
Michael Brickman retweeted
French journalist Paul Amar:
“They came prepared. They had the addresses of town halls. They had addresses of Jewish shop owners.
In a street in Marseille, all businesses owned by Jews were set on fire. Businesses run by Muslims weren’t”
Michael Brickman retweeted
On October 7, @EmmanuelMacron called Israel's 🇮🇱 Prime Minister @netanyahu and urged that Israel show restraint. Netanyahu responded: “if we don't dismantle Hamas in Gaza, you"ll meet them in Paris.”
Michael Brickman retweeted
Jared Huffman was an original co-sponsor of a bill with the worst permitting reform idea I've ever seen.
He wanted to use billions of dollars in taxpayer money to subsidize the non-profits and local governments that block energy infrastructure projects.
for the record, @JaredHuffman has not endorsed a single YIMBY bill in the CA state legislature, and has opposed literally every single permitting reform proposed in Congress since 2022, except for the one he authored that would make permitting HARDER
Michael Brickman retweeted
THE BREWERS WIN THE PENNANT
The full call of the final out from @JLevering4, as heard on the Brewers Radio Network
Michael Brickman retweeted
The Milwaukee Brewers are the first team in the history of American sports to get swept 0-4 in the postseason and then sweep that same opponent 4-0 the following year.
A “revenge sweep” has only happened 4x prior - never in consecutive 7-game series, and never in the MLB at all.
