Majority Leader | Research | The Leader Board | THE NEWSR...Skip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNE×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUFacebookXInstagramFacebookXInstagramVisit Leader Thune's South Dakota Site Here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMThe Leader Board01.06.26Rampant Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Expose the Flaws of Democrats’ Poor GovernanceAs Minnesota Grapples With a Staggering Fraud Scandal, Republicans’ Working Families Tax Cuts Law Enacts New Protections for Taxpayer Money and Services RECENT INVESTIGATIONS UNCOVER MASSIVE FRAUD AND MISUSE OF TAXPAYER MONEY IN DEMOCRAT-RUN MINNESOTA“The fraud scandal that rattled Minnesota was staggering in its scale and brazenness.” (The New York Times: How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch – 11/30/25)“Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a government program meant to keep children fed during the Covid-19 pandemic. At first, many in the state saw the case as a one-off abuse during a health emergency. But as new schemes targeting the state’s generous safety net programs came to light, state and federal officials began to grapple with a jarring reality.” (The New York Times: How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch – 11/30/25)“Half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 Minnesota-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen, a federal prosecutor said… describing the massive and multilayered fraud schemes as staggering.” (Associated Press: Half of $18B in federal funds for Minnesota-run programs may have been defrauded, official says – 12/18/25)“First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said the scale of fraud puts services at risk for people who need them, including adults leaving addiction treatment centers who needed help finding a stable place to live and children with autism who were seeking one-on-one therapy.” (Associated Press: Half of $18B in federal funds for Minnesota-run programs may have been defrauded, official says – 12/18/25)The Minnesota non-profit Feeding Our Future allegedly laundered $250 million in state and federal money. Roughly 80 defendants have been charged with (and many have pleaded or been found guilty of) money laundering and wire fraud. (KMSP: Feeding Our Future: 77th person charged in massive $250M fraud scheme – 11/21/25)“[Feeding our Future] employees recruited people to open more than 250 supposed food distribution sites across the state and created paperwork to falsely claim 91 million meals served to children. The US Department of Agriculture funds food subsidy programs, but they are administered by the states and nonprofit groups.” (CATO Institute: Minnesota Fraud Update – 1/5/26)“The nonpartisan and nonpolitical Government Accountability Office has estimated that ‘the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud,’ based on data from 2018 to 2022. Programs experiencing the largest share of improper payments, which aren’t always caused by fraud, include Medicare, Medicaid, the earned-income tax credit and SNAP, according to the GAO.” (The Wall Street Journal: What to Know About Minnesota’s ‘Industrial-Scale Fraud’ Scandal – 12/19/25)DEMOCRATS ONCE CLAIMED TO CARE ABOUT SAFEGUARDING PROGRAMS FROM FRAUD, BUT NOW THEY OPPOSE REFORMS AND PROMOTE LAX SAFEGUARDS, LEADING TO RAMPANT FRAUD“And the real nub of this is how do we wring that waste out, that fraud, abuse, duplication, without interfering with the good care that we want every person on Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance to get.” – Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) (2/25/10)“We went after medical fraud in Medicare and Medicaid very aggressively — more aggressively than ever before, and have saved tens of billions of dollars. Fifty billion dollars of waste taken out of the system.” –President Barack Obama (10/3/12)“[O]ne of the things that I am absolutely convinced of is that we have to work as a centerpiece of any social policy… Not only because -- not only because ultimately people who work are going to get more income, but the intrinsic dignity of work, the sense of purpose…” – President Barack Obama (8/16/08)“Even though Democrats have cried foul over Republicans’ reforms, former Democrat presidents and Democrat congressional leaders have repeatedly called to remove waste, fraud, and abuse from the program.” (Breitbart: After Decades of Tough Talk on Medicaid Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, Democrats Call GOP Reforms ‘Shameful’ – 5/15/25)“President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The legislation substantially reconstructed the nation’s welfare system by giving state governments more autonomy over welfare services while also reducing the federal government’s role.” (Politico: Clinton signs ‘Welfare to Work’ bill, Aug. 22, 1996 – 8/22/18)“Clinton said that it ‘gives us a chance we haven’t had before to break the cycle of dependency that has existed for millions and millions of our fellow citizens, exiling them from the world of work. It gives structure, meaning and dignity to most of our lives.’” (Politico: Clinton signs ‘Welfare to Work’ bill, Aug. 22, 1996 – 8/22/18)But today, Democrats continue pushing for a return to the status quo, which led to massive waste at the federal and state level in recent years:On the federal Medicaid rolls, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found that 1.2 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program in two or more states. (The Wall Street Journal: Meet the Medicaid Double-Dippers – 7/21/25)CMS also found that another 1.6 million individuals were enrolled in both Medicaid and ObamaCare in 2024. (The Wall Street Journal: Meet the Medicaid Double-Dippers – 7/21/25)“CMS estimates that the duplicate enrollment problem is costing as much as $14 billion a year.” (The Wall Street Journal: Meet the Medicaid Double-Dippers – 7/21/25)“As many as 3 million New Yorkers may be fraudulently reaping taxpayer-funded Medicaid and other public health insurance benefits at a potential cost of $20 billion a year, a staggering new study claims.” (New York Post: 3 million New Yorkers on Medicaid, public health insurance are costing state a staggering $20B in potentially ‘fraudulent’ coverage: report – 11/26/24)“Thousands of deceased Coloradans stayed on the state’s Medicaid rolls, as the state continued paying managed care organizations to cover them… Colorado made an estimated $7.3 million in capitation payments between 2018 and 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG). The payments continued for some Coloradans months after their deaths because of outdated reporting and system delays, state officials said.” (Colorado Politics: Colorado kept paying for thousands of dead people on Medicaid rolls, audit says – 4/13/25)Democrats have attempted to repeal the health provisions of the Working Families Tax Cuts, and by extension Republicans’ reforms to root out waste, fraud, and abuse from Medicaid, and they even shut down the federal government in an attempt to do so. (Punchbowl News: AM: Dems, GOP dig in as shutdown nears – 9/18/25; Senate Majority Leader: Chuck Schumer and Democrats Want to Break Medicaid. Again. – 8/1/25)REPUBLICANS’ WORKING FAMILIES TAX CUTS LAW ENACTED SEVERAL PROVISIONS TO PREVENT SUCH FRAUDRepublicans’ Working Families Tax Cuts enacted several policies to protect taxpayer money and maintain the integrity of government programs:Established new Medicaid work requirements, which better target the program to those in need and now require those who can work to do so to be eligible for government assistance. (U.S. Senate Committee on Finance: Crapo Highlights Tax Wins for Hardworking Americans and Main Street – 6/28/25)Protected the federal taxpayer from state financing gimmicks and loopholes, like the provider tax, that ballooned the cost of Medicaid by inflating costs. (U.S. Senate Committee on Finance: Crapo Highlights Tax Wins for Hardworking Americans and Main Street – 6/28/25; The New York Times: G.O.P. Targets a Medicaid Loophole Used by 49 States to Grab Federal Money – 5/10/25; Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services: CMS Moves to Shut Down Medicaid Loophole—Protects Vulnerable Americans, Saves Billions – 5/12/25)Strengthened eligibility verification for Medicaid by ensuring deceased individuals do not remain enrolled, addressing duplicate enrollment and requiring states to check certain enrollees’ eligibility twice a year. (U.S. Congress: H.R.1 – accessed 1/6/26)Required states to remove more quickly ineligible people from the Medicaid rolls. (U.S. Congress: H.R.1 – accessed 1/6/26)Refocused Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare subsidies to American citizens. (U.S. Congress: H.R.1 – accessed 1/6/26)“This year’s GOP tax bill included modest reforms to prevent ObamaCare fraud, such as requiring the exchange to verify Social Security numbers and income data before enrolling applicants in plans.” (The Wall Street Journal: Editorial: ObamaCare Is a Mecca for Fraud – 12/9/25)“It also requires people to repay the government if their incomes turn out to be higher than what they estimated on their applications. The Congressional Budget Office projected that the tax bill’s ObamaCare fraud controls could result in about one million more people going uninsured, but most aren’t eligible for subsidies—and some might not even exist.” (The Wall Street Journal: Editorial: ObamaCare Is a Mecca for Fraud – 12/9/25)The Working Families Tax Cuts also enacted new rules to ensure SNAP benefits are there for the program’s intended recipients:“Strengthen[ing] SNAP work requirements for able-bodied adults by increasing the age that able-bodied adults must continue working from 54 through 64.”“[Including] parents of children at or over the age of 14, as these adults can reasonably work, volunteer, or seek education and training while their children are at school.”“Limit[ing] the ability of States to arbitrarily waive work requirements by restricting waivers to only areas with high unemployment.” (U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry: Chairman Boozman Releases Updated Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Budget Reconciliation Text – 6/25/25)PrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram
