In other news, Death Valley hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday afternoon in what may be a new worldwide record for the hottest place on Earth. I'm sure this is fine!
Meanwhile, Trump is floating a pardon for former NSA contractor and Russian defector Edward Snowden, but Snowden hasn't actually been convicted of anything so he can't be pardoned. There's nothing to pardon, at least not yet.
Finally, the Trump regime massively overpaid for ventilators that the Obama administration had secured for far less money.
Citing “evidence of fraud, waste, and abuse,” a congressional subcommittee investigating the federal government’s purchase of $646.7 million worth of Philips ventilators has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General to launch its own investigation of the deal.
The House subcommittee launched its review after ProPublica stories in March and April showed how a U.S. subsidiary of Royal Philips N.V. received millions in federal tax dollars years ago to develop a low-cost ventilator for pandemics but didn’t deliver it. Instead, as the coronavirus began spreading around the globe and U.S. hospitals were desperate for more, Philips was selling commercial versions of the government-funded ventilator overseas from its Pennsylvania factory. Then in April, despite having not fulfilled the initial contract, the Dutch company struck a much more lucrative deal to sell the government 43,000 ventilators for four times the price.
Under this new deal, ventilators that the Obama administration had agreed to buy for $3,280 each suddenly cost $15,000. When the deal was announced in April, neither HHS nor Philips would say how the more expensive ventilators differed from the cheaper ones.
Is this what it means to run the government "like a business?"