There's been a lot come to light about the extensive fraud perpetrated on the American taxpayers: Medicare and Medicaid fraud, COVID relief fraud, food aid fraud, and, not least of all, daycare fraud. All of these are funneling money, in the millions, likely billions, away from the people it was intended to help and into the pockets of fraudsters.
Now, add some more to the list: A recent investigation by The Center Square, in Washington, has revealed a bunch of "daycare" operations that had no children, but which were taking big, fat payments from the taxpayers.
Many Washington state daycare providers receive large taxpayer subsidies, but an investigation by The Center Square found several that had few, if any, children and at least one establishment that received hundreds of thousands of dollars despite residents at the listed address indicating it was not a daycare.
Yet politicians charged with overseeing the spending continue to publicly say there is no problem with improper payments to the daycares and, instead, have been criticizing journalists for investigating the potential fraud. No state official has announced an investigation or crackdown though the legislature instituted some reforms last session.
No problem? No problem with payments to daycares that have no kids? Seriously?
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Watch The Center Square's report:
Here's a bit from the report:
According to fiscal.wa.gov, one daycare in West Seattle received more than $229,000 over nine months from July 2025 through March 2026, but the residents at the home repeatedly told The Center Square there was no daycare at the home, nor had there been.
“Is there a daycare operated from here?” a reporter from The Center Square asked.
“No," the person who answered the door responded.
The resident also said there had never been a daycare at the address.
Some of these supposed daycare centers were receiving over $20,000 per month, with no children in evidence. That's a calamity, a horrendous fraud perpetrated on the taxpayers of the state of Washington, and politicians with oversight insist there's no problem. Well, I don't know about you, but I sure see a problem. The state Attorney General sees a problem, too, although fraud isn't what he perceives as the problem so much as the people who are exposing the fraud.
Attorney General Nick Brown responded by encouraging anyone who would see a reporter “harassing” a daycare provider by knocking on the door, to report it to the hate crimes hotline.
“Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation," noted Brown’s Dec 30, 2025, press release. "Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior. I encourage anyone experiencing threats or harassment to either contact local law enforcement or our office’s Hate Crimes & Bias Incident Hotline.”
Showing up at someone's door who is running a public service - childcare - and who is taking tens of thousands of dollars in payments from the taxpayers isn't threatening or harassing. It's a legitimate inquiry into where millions of dollars of taxpayer funds are being shuttled, to whom, and why. Why are locations registered as daycare providers, where the owners/operators of these supposed businesses are taking in tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars but having no kids in evidence, somehow immune to inquiry by the taxpaying public?
Answer: They aren't. When you dine at the devil's table, you don't get to choose the menu, and when you accept taxpayer money, you should expect to be open to inquiry. Since the state of Washington seems unable to conduct any such inquiry, it's up to journalists.
That's literally part of the job.
And, note once again the location, as we've seen it so many times already with these huge fraud scams: Minnesota, California, now Washington: What do these states all have in common?
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