The New York Times laid out what conservatives have been warning about for months: Minnesota’s social-services system was systematically attacked by fraudsters who bilked taxpayers on an industrial scale, with federal prosecutors charging dozens of people in schemes tied to pandemic and welfare programs. The reporting described the situation as “staggering” and revealed a pattern that cannot be written off as a few isolated incidents; this is the story of government programs turned into a money machine for criminals.
Internal whistleblowers inside Minnesota’s Department of Human Services and agency employees have revised official loss estimates repeatedly, and state employees themselves now say the cumulative fraud since 2017 could top eight billion dollars — a jaw-dropping figure that exposes how lax controls and political calculations let this rot spread. When career bureaucrats are sounding alarms and posting detailed warnings on social platforms, it’s not rumor or partisan spin — it’s a cry for accountability.
Some of the worst abuses were not theoretical: Feeding Our Future and other schemes funneled hundreds of millions in child nutrition and human services dollars to sham vendors that produced few or no meals and submitted fake invoices; Medicaid and housing stabilization programs have been riddled with falsified claims and sham providers. Federal prosecutors and state investigators have slowly pulled at the threads, uncovering convictions and indictments, but every new revelation shows the problem was far broader than a single scandal.
Don’t let the governor’s PR talking points fool you — the legal work that put people behind bars was led by federal prosecutors and investigators, not by Governor Walz’s office, and fact-checkers have pushed back on the governor’s attempt to claim full responsibility for the prosecutions. Minnesotans deserve leadership that stops fraud before it swells into a multibillion-dollar catastrophe, not excuses after the fact.
Republican lawmakers in Washington and Minnesota are rightly demanding a full reckoning, and House Republicans have made it clear that the federal government must step in to recover funds, overhaul oversight, and punish those who turned public programs into private profiteering. The House Budget Committee and GOP state lawmakers are calling for audits, stronger anti-fraud mechanisms, and hearings to expose how political fear and weak gatekeeping created a playground for fraudsters.
This is precisely why conservative calls to rein in bloated entitlement programs, tighten vendor vetting, and restore strict auditing rules are not ideological attacks — they are common-sense defenses of hardworking taxpayers. Fox News’ America Reports featured reporting and commentary this week from Garrett Tenney and Rep. Brandon Gill as the scandal moved into the national spotlight, highlighting the urgent need for policy fixes and accountability from elected officials.
Minnesotans and every American who pays taxes should demand immediate reforms: freeze suspect payouts, bring in independent auditors, prosecute the organizers to the fullest extent, and reform program rules so benefits go to real people in real need — not to shell companies and fraudulent vendors. The moment for bipartisan action is now; if Democrats continue to put political calculation over protecting public dollars, conservatives will keep fighting to restore honest, efficient government that serves citizens rather than crooks.
