I recently spent several days in the Estes Park Hospital . Boy, was I sick! Inflamed gall bladder—I’m sure some of you can relate!
From the beginning when an ambulance crew picked me up in a snowstorm at midnight to interaction with the staff, nurses, doctors I was treated with kindness, professionalism, efficiency and care. People were nice, even occasionally, funny.
What a shame that this wonderful group doesn’t work for hospital administrators and a hospital board who embody the same traits
They deserve better. The Estes Park community deserves better. What can we do?
Nancy Pike Hause
Estes Park
Republican administration promises to make America safe and reduce costs; commits fraud and massive waste in first week.
The Republican administration promised to rid America of violent alien criminals in the first week.
“These are murderers. These are people that have been as bad as you get. As bad as anybody you’ve seen,” [Trump]old reporters Friday, Jan 24. “We’re taking them out first.”
Also, on Tuesday, Jan 28 officials declared that they had “fulfilled President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport violent criminals illegally in the country.”
At a press conference on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed, “All of them, because they illegally broke our nation’s laws, and therefore, they are criminals as far as this administration goes.”
On Tuesday, 200 Columbian immigrants were deported to Bogata, Columbia. Of the 200, none had criminal records or current criminal charges in either Columbia or the United States; 20 were children; two were pregnant women.
The Republican administration has also promised to stop “federal civil servants of trying to push out “billions of dollars for wicked and pernicious purposes.”
“The choice here is simple,” Mr. Miller said. “…”Donald Trump gets political control over this government and ends the waste, abuse and fraud on the American people…”
To deport immigrants, President Donald Trump’s administration has initiated deportation flights using U.S. military planes, a move significantly increasing costs compared to flights chartered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Based on DOD estimates, a single flight involving a C-17 cost approximately $252,000 to transport 80 migrants from El Paso, Texas, to Guatemala City. However, using a C-130E for the same 12-hour flight could cost between $816,000 and $852,000.
In contrast, The Mirror reported that DHS-chartered flights typically cost just $8,577 per trip.
The Republican administration could have used two chartered aircraft for a cost of about $17,000, or about $85 per passenger. Instead, they chose to use two military C-130 aircraft for a cost of about $1,700,000, or about $8,500 per passenger, 100 times more expensive.
At the same press conference on Tuesday, Press Secretary Leavitt tried to justify an illegal OMB funding freeze with an example of the previous administration’s preposterous waste: Press Secretary Leavitt reported, “DOGE and OMB also found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza.” So, that’s what this pause is focused on.”
However, even a quick research reveals that U.S, does not provide condoms in the Middle East, that $50 million would purchase 1.5 billion condoms – 3,000 for each man, woman and child in Gaza; that is more than US spends on birth control for the entire world; and that Leavitt could not provide any documentation for this claim.
The incoming Republican administration was elected on a platform of deporting violent criminal aliens, increasing transparency, removing fraud, and eliminating waste.
In 24 hours – from Jan 28 -29 – there have been public news reports about lying, fraud and massive waste in the government. Perhaps these may have been inadvertent errors of a new, overly enthusiastic, and poorly coordinated administration. But they are errors – serious and expensive errors – involving mis-information, mis-representation, fraud and massive waste.
The administration has broken its promises, and the Press Secretary has lied to the American people.
I have two questions:
- Will the press Secretary admit that Republican administration has broken its promises, and that she has lied to the American people?
- Will our elected representatives – Senator Hickenlooper, Senator Bennet and Representative Neguse – take action to correct these examples of administrative fraud and governmental waste?
Michael Brown
Allenspark