The more you look for welfare fraud, the more you find — especially in Democratic states.
Take Minnesota: On Thursday, the feds charged another 15 people with $90 million worth of fraud connected with the North Star State’s Medicaid programs.
That includes the “largest autism fraud case ever,” per Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald.
And the charges, McDonald added, are just the “beginning of our work in Minnesota”; stolen funds will likely wind up a whopping $9 billion.
That’s a staggering sum. And it’s just one state — total estimates of Medicaid fraud nationwide run as high as $120 billion a year.
The new Minnesota charges involve seven Medicaid programs, including one whose entire budget was wiped out by the fraud, leaving nothing for the homeless people it was meant to serve.
Six years ago, McDonald noted, the autism program cost taxpayers $600,000 a year, but that “skyrocketed to over $400 million,” all driven by scammers.
Meanwhile, a probe by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) just found Minnesota’s infamous “Quality Learing Center” — which gained notoriety because of its misspelled name — raked in $231,472 from the Small Business Administration during COVID, with severe doubts that the cash went for anything legit.
That’s on top of some $10 million it got in state funding since 2019.
Plus, on Wednesday, federal prosecutors charged Fahima Egeh Mahamud with wire fraud and conspiracy in connection with a Minnesota day-care fraud scheme.
Mahamud was indicted earlier for her role in the $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scheme.
Oh, and the founder of that food program, Aimee Bock, drew a 41-year sentence Tuesday for her role in that scheme.
Starting to get the picture? The pilfering of taxpayer dollars is pervasive — and involves massive amounts.
And though it’s not limited to blue states and cities, that’s where it’s likely the worst, since they’re eager to spend the most and to ask the fewest questions.
Last week, Vice President JD Vance announced a freeze on $1.3 billion in federal reimbursements to California hospices, “because the state of California has not taken fraud very seriously.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who oversees Medicare and Medicaid, suspects about half of Los Angeles-area hospices “are fraudulent.”
In New York, the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond has pointed to millions in Medicaid scams.
Democrats are always pushing to boost spending on these programs, claiming it’s vital for the needy.
Yet somehow, much of the cash ends up in the hands of their political allies, donors — or outright fraudsters — rather than those in need.
It’s enough to make you think that’s the plan.
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