Wednesday, July 8 — the crackdown and the loophole

0:00 Vice President Vance and the Labor Department launched the biggest visa fraud investigation of this administration today — but they aimed it at workers, not the employers who built the system.

0:12 Let's start with that H-1B probe, because it tells you a lot about how enforcement works when it's meant to send a message more than fix a problem.

0:22 The DOL Inspector General issued dozens of subpoenas — and named Indian IT firm Cognizant specifically. The charges include labor trafficking and fraudulent filings. Sounds tough.

0:37 But here's what the announcement doesn't say: for decades, U.S. employers have used the H-1B system to pay visa holders below market rates, tie them to a single sponsor, and suppress wages across whole industries.

0:52 Congress has left those loopholes wide open. This investigation targets a few firms and the workers themselves — who face deportation and blacklisting — while the systemic abuse that the law enables stays untouched.

1:08 It's enforcement as theater, and the people who lose are mostly the ones with the least power. Then there's the rift between federal health policy and what employers are actually doing.

1:20 The administration's Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program, which caps out-of-pocket costs on certain obesity drugs at 50 dollars a month for seniors, launched in July. Sounds like a win.

1:34 But a new employer survey shows private companies are moving in the opposite direction: restricting coverage, adding prior authorization hurdles, shifting costs to workers. The federal program covers seniors on Medicare.

1:50 The people with private insurance — working-age adults — are getting squeezed. It's a two-tier system, and the administration hasn't negotiated drug prices down far enough to change that. ABC fired back at the FCC today.

2:06 Chairman Brendan Carr launched an investigation into "The View" after President Trump publicly criticized the show.

2:14 ABC's lawyers argue that the early license review of eight Disney-owned stations is viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple.

2:23 The tactic comes straight from Project 2025: use existing regulatory discretion to punish media adversaries while claiming procedural neutrality. The real harm won't be to ABC.

2:38 It'll be the independent station in a smaller market that can't afford to fight, and decides to steer clear of investigative reporting on labor violations or civil rights abuses.

2:49 Across the country, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division sent letters to election officials in Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan, warning them they could face criminal prosecution if they fail to prevent noncitizen voting.

3:05 Noncitizen voting is already a federal crime with stiff penalties. Every state already requires voters to affirm citizenship under penalty of perjury.

3:16 This isn't about enforcing the law — it's about threatening the people who administer elections, months before the midterms.

3:24 The Supreme Court struck down the cap on coordinated spending between national party committees and their candidates. The case was NRSC v. FEC.

3:36 Justice Kavanaugh wrote the opinion, calling party-candidate coordination core political speech. Individual contribution limits don't change — you can still give 41,300 dollars a year to a national party committee.

3:52 What changes is that parties can now spend unlimited sums on ads, polling, and mail planned directly with the candidate's campaign. No new disclosure, no firewalls. The money just flows differently.

4:07 State financial officers, speaking through Fox News Digital, claim there's about 225 million dollars in K-12 education fraud from pandemic-era ESSER funds. That's less than 0.4 percent of annual federal K-12 spending.

4:24 A rounding error. But the administration is using that number to justify deep cuts to the Education Department and push a voucher-friendly reconciliation package.

4:35 The response that fits the crime — a targeted audit-and-clawback — is being swapped for a wrecking ball. And finally, Florida's property tax cut package is heading to voters in November — but the numbers don't add up.

4:51 The tax cut was justified by the state's explosive pandemic-era growth. But that growth has slowed.

4:58 The Census Bureau's latest data shows net domestic migration dropping, while net international migration becomes the dominant driver. A permanent tax cut built on a temporary boom leaves a structural revenue gap.

5:14 When the cost comes due, the state will face cuts to housing investments, rental assistance, and infrastructure that low-income tenants depend on. This isn't just today's news.

5:27 We've read and reframed 147 actions from Project 2025 so far, and we've mapped 1,120 distinct actions across the whole document. The watch is constant. We document; we do not pretend to have reversed anything.

5:44 But we are tracking every piece as it lands. Next week, the House is expected to take up the reconciliation package that includes the private school voucher provisions.

5:55 The Florida tax cut referendum goes to voters in November, requiring 60 percent approval.

6:01 And the FCC's license review for ABC stations moves toward a hearing that will test how far the First Amendment shield actually extends. That's the day. We'll be back tomorrow.