The swamp is teeming

Seema Verma, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, filed a $47,000 claim for lost property on Aug. 20, 2018, after her bags were stolen while she was giving a speech in San Francisco the prior month. The property was not insured, Verma wrote in her filing to the Health and Human Services department.

  Politico

Jesus fuck me. Why is the Medicare head traveling to a speech with $47,000 worth of jewelry and clothes in the first place? One presumes that's not her entire wardrobe. Why does she even have $47,000 worth of clothes and jewelry?

The federal health department ultimately reimbursed Verma $2,852.40 for her claim, a CMS spokesperson said.

And that's a lot. How long was she there?

Verma was in San Francisco as part of a scheduled three-day trip to Northern California that included a speaking engagement in Napa Valley and a visit to Palo Alto-based Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.

Three days! And for that she needed to take $43,000 worth of jewelry?

Verma’s claim included $43,065 for about two dozen pieces of jewelry, based off an appraisal she'd received from a jeweler about three weeks after the theft.

Wait a dad-gum minute. Appraised after they were stolen? How'd he pull off that trick?

Among Verma's stolen jewelry was an Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, made of gold, prasiolite and diamonds, that Verma’s jeweler valued at $5,900.

How many in the administration have felt the need to buy Ivanka products?

Did she have pictures of what she took on her trip? Any proof at all?

Verma’s claim also included about $2,000 to cover the cost of her stolen clothes and another $2,000 to cover the cost of other stolen goods, including a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $349 claim for noise-cancelling headphones.

Dear god, what a grifter.

"When paying for such goods, the department pays a discounted rate based on age for the items that were lost," [a department] spokesperson said. "It’s perfectly appropriate that the administrator filed a personal property loss claim for goods stolen while on work travel and this is not an unusual practice for federal employees."

Somebody needs to start looking into that.

But the department is expressly prohibited from reimbursing staff for lost items like jewelry, the spokesperson said.

Why?  Perhaps because you don't need jewelry on a work trip.  Especially $43,000 worth, ffs.

The news of the large request for stolen luxury items comes at a time of unusual scrutiny for Verma, who formerly served as a consultant to then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in Indiana and has led CMS since March 2017. The $1 trillion health agency administers Medicare, the nation’s health insurance program for seniors; Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans; and Obamacare, among other programs.

Verma has been engaged in an acrimonious feud with HHS Secretary Alex Azar that has spilled over into policy matters and prompted separate closed-door meetings for each official with Vice President Pence. Her spending of taxpayer money has also been under scrutiny by the HHS inspector general, after POLITICO reported in March about her extensive use of outside public relations consultants, some of whom worked to burnish Verma’s personal brand.

The $2.25 million public relations contract was put on hold pending the probe, and Verma has been under investigation from congressional Democrats.

[...]

Verma initially estimated the cost of her lost property as $20,000, according to the police report, before later revising the cost upward when filing her claim to the health department.

[...]

"At her own expense the administrator travels to Washington, DC, from Indiana each week to work at CMS, which was why she was traveling with her personal collection of jewelry," the spokesperson said.

That makes absolutely no sense. Obviously, her jewelry would be safer at home.

The most corrupt administration in our lifetime.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: