Day 24 of this needless government shutdown and a DC whistleblower has just dropped a video that should make every American hair stand on end — the RAW FEED’s Gary Franchi says the real story isn’t ideology, it’s money. The whistleblower alleges that giant health insurers have been quietly insulated from the pain of this shutdown even as hardworking federal employees and military families go without pay and heat.
Put plainly: private insurers routinely receive large, recurring payments from the federal government through programs like Medicare Advantage and state Medicaid managed-care contracts, so the idea that they’re untouched by a lapse in appropriations is not implausible. The mechanics are well-known: Medicare Advantage plans are paid monthly by CMS and states pay managed-care organizations a monthly capitation for Medicaid enrollees, meaning corporate balance sheets can keep flowing even when Main Street freezes.
This is exactly the kind of swamp deal conservatives have warned about for years — politicians cozy with corporate behemoths while real Americans suffer. Senator Schumer, who has been at the center of the shutdown fight and who has faced criticism from all sides over his strategy, now faces an explosive allegation that this fight benefits his big-money allies more than the people of New York. The public deserves a straight answer, not partisan spin.
Meanwhile, ordinary families are paying the price: furloughed federal employees, veterans worried about care access, and military families staring down missed paydays while essential workers like air-traffic controllers and TSA agents keep working without a paycheck. Shutdowns don’t just break bureaucracy — they break lives and livelihoods, and the economic pain stacks up fast. If insurers are truly insulated from the sting, the moral rot there will be obvious.
Don’t take my word for it — the payment structure is how these companies make massive profits. Investigations have shown Medicare Advantage plans can extract billions through risk-scoring techniques and lucrative in-home assessments that boost federal payments, which critics say pad insurer profits even as taxpayers fund the bills. That’s not abstract policy; it’s a raw incentive structure that rewards rent-seeking, and it stinks of influence-buying when lobbyists and donors run wild.
If you’ve been waiting for the mainstream media to level with you, don’t hold your breath — but cracks are forming. Even some outlets and pundits have begun airing awkward questions about Democratic strategy and leadership choices during this collapse, and those questions will widen as whistleblower claims get traction. The swamp doesn’t like sunlight, but sunlight is what we need.
Congressional watchdogs and the HHS oversight apparatus have tools to examine these payment flows and hold crooked arrangements to account, and they should use them immediately — audits, subpoenas, and public hearings are the minimum here. Americans deserve to know if mandatory federal payments are being used as a political wedge while insurers keep collecting millions, and agencies like CMS and state Medicaid offices must answer for any preferential treatment.
Patriots, this is about more than one senator or one scandal; it’s about whether corporate interests will be allowed to treat our government as their private ATM while families freeze. Demand investigations, demand transparency, and demand leaders who put country over corporate cash. Independent reporting exposed this story — support the outlets and whistleblowers willing to risk everything to bring us the truth.
We will not be quiet while politicians choose donors over duty. Call your senators, call for hearings, and remember that government exists to serve the American people, not to line the pockets of conglomerates that lobby for loopholes and cash flows. If the whistleblower is right, this shutdown is more than politics — it’s betrayal, and hardworking Americans will hold the guilty accountable.
