The Issue: Old audits showing misappropriation of federal funds meant for child care centers in Minnesota.
Minnesota’s child-care-fraud scandal is a tragic example of what happens when coercive government programs replace voluntary, accountable solutions (“Decade of deceit,” Jan. 2).
Millions were allegedly stolen, and the children the program was meant to help were the ones who were harmed. If we want systems that actually help families, they must be voluntary, competitive and transparent. Minnesota’s scandal shows what happens when they aren’t.
Joseph Sanitate
Las Vegas, Nev.
Whoever, wherever or whatever you are, when you open up a day care for the sole purpose of defrauding the government, closing the business does not insulate you from criminality and incarceration.
Mike Santavicca
Yonkers
Large government programs rarely begin with bad intentions. They’re meant to help American families and are paid for by taxpayers with good intentions.
But when programs become too complex to easily audit or too distant from the people paying for them, greed finds opportunity amongst the billions it takes to help the general population.
Without clear rules and defined consequences, the noblest programs can quietly rot from the inside until the public trust that funded them is gone, and the cost is far greater than money alone.
The money stolen in Minnesota from American taxpayers that was intended to help children seems to have made its way to organized fraudsters. Shame on us for allowing it to happen, not just there, but all across our nation.
Tom Wilbur
Salina, Kan.
Looks like it’s time to reinstate DOGE across America.
Bob Carl
Boca Raton, Fla.
There’s really nothing new about fraud, regardless of the state you’re in. No social program is immune to abuse; all it takes is greed and ingenuity — which are supplied to us ad nauseam by almost every impoverished country on the planet.
I don’t see fraud in Minnesota as cause for alarm, because it happens everywhere. However, if I were Gov. Tim Walz, I would fear how something so commonplace has the potential to take him down and destroy him.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita, Calif.
The Issue: Vladimir Putin’s false claim to Pres. Trump that Ukrainians launched drones to assassinate him.
President Trump rolls out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, then Putin sticks the middle finger up at him by declaring that Ukraine attacked his palace (“Russia Is the Roadblock,” Editorial, Dec. 31).
The CIA found zero evidence that this was true. How can the word of Putin ever be trusted? This war is Putin’s and only Putin’s.
M. Hilder
Weymouth, UK
I’d like to express my sincere gratitude for The Post’s consistent, straightforward coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Every day, I see the cost of distorting reality. That’s why it matters so much to see an American publication that respects facts, calls aggression what it is and does not replace truth with convenient wording.
Oleg Nefedov
Zhytomyr, Ukraine
War is a paradigm for Russia today. It can only be forced to end the war with Ukraine, not through negotiations, but through political and economic pressure.
Putin is a former KGB officer who was trained to lie for the sake of intelligence services and his personal career. The bluff about the Ukrainian drone attack on his residence clearly illustrates this. Lying over the phone to the US president about an assassination attempt is beyond the pale.
Herman Obuhov
Kyiv, Ukraine
Want to weigh in on today’s stories? Send your thoughts (along with your full name and city of residence) to [email protected]. Letters are subject to editing for clarity, length, accuracy, and style.
The post Minnesota’s child-care fraud fiasco: Letters to the Editor — Jan. 5, 2026 appeared first on New York Post.
