Entitlement fraud, the fraudulent claiming of payments under federal programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicare, and Medicaid, and others, has been rampant. We're still learning just how bad this problem is, and the partial answer, as is becoming increasingly obvious, is "larger than we ever thought."
Back in the 2000-2010 range, I was involved with a small company that had, in addition to a manufacturing arm, a leasing arm that leased special-use durable medical devices like bariatric beds to medical facilities that needed them for short terms. My partner in that enterprise was scrupulously honest (as am I), but we still got stuck on the hook for a substantial amount due to fraudulent claims made by a contract sales guy. So, this isn't new, but it sure does seem to be growing worse - and Democrats, by opposing at every turn any attempt to squash this fraud, are tacitly aiding and abetting the fraudsters.
But it's the extent of all this that's so alarming. A recent editorial at Issues & Insights presents some startling numbers.
The mobsters in “The Godfather” set their sights way too low. If they really wanted to make it big time, they should have targeted federal entitlement programs instead of gamblers and drug addicts. Not only does it pay better, but you can count on one political party to look the other way.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) figures that fraudsters make off with more than $500 billion of federal taxpayer money a year, plus another $184 billion in “improper payments.”
That isn’t just bigger than U.S. Steel. That’s five times as big as the entire steel industry.
So, these are quite literally industrial-grade rip-offs of the American taxpayers. Here are some recent examples.
Every day, it seems, there are reports of fraud, most of it involving federal entitlement programs. Everyone knows about the massive fraud uncovered in Minnesota, Ohio, and California. But the stories just keep trickling in.
- Just last month, the Justice Department charged 455 defendants for what amounts to $6.5 billion in alleged false medical claims.
- Around the same time, Herbert Leon Kimble was arrested in the Philippines on charges that he ran a $1.2 billion Medicare fraud conspiracy.
- Investigators in Alaska charged 15 people with close to $2 million in Medicaid fraud.
- A Brooklyn, N.Y., retailer has been charged with stealing more than $640,000 in food-stamp benefits from people in Ohio.
Crooks are getting rich off of this. An advocacy group looking to expose this, Advancing American Freedom, has a great graphic showing just how bad this might be:
A shocker, from https://t.co/jlhlileZ2b: pic.twitter.com/HxGusxMSb7
— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) July 10, 2026
This is more than just crime. This is a national calamity. Democrats paint every attempt to clamp down on this as a personal attempt by President Trump and his administration to starve little kids and old people, to deprive people of health care; the only thing we're missing is Democrat campaign ads showing President Trump personally shoving a little old lady in a wheelchair over a cliff. Don't snicker; they actually did it to Paul Ryan, and he never attempted anything on the scale of what the Trump administration is trying to do to get a handle on this disaster.
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Democrats are opposing every attempt to slam the doors on this.
When evidence of widespread fraud emerged in California and Minnesota, for example, the governors of both states attacked the Trump administration for pointing it out, while pretending that they are dealing with the issue.
When Trump moved to deny Medicaid funds to states rife with fraud, “Democrats slammed the crusade as a smokescreen for … Trump’s war against blue states, and an attempt to divert attention from GOP cuts to healthcare programs.”
When Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins asked states to turn over food stamp enrollment data and offered to partner with them to root out fraud, 21 Democrat-controlled states refused to do so on spurious privacy grounds.
When Republicans in New Mexico pointed out that the Democrat-controlled state “rarely verifies, seldom audits, and barely investigates fraud” in its food stamp program, Democrats responded that fighting fraud threatened to “restrict eligibility.”
Here's the thing: Cleaning up the open cases is great, and worth fighting Democrats every step of the way. We should strive to recover every dime we can, and to make sure the fraudsters spend long stretches looking at steel bars. But the very scale of this thing makes this a Herculean effort - and if I were to choose one to compare this fraud issue to, it would be the Augean stables, because there's a lot of that stuff to be shoveled. No, the tap needs to be turned off, and that requires Congress to act. Our entitlement programs need to be clamped down. Nutrition assistance should provide food, not funds. All of our entitlement programs have to come with significantly more strings attached - work requirements, scrupulous identification and verification of citizenship; no, no benefits to non-citizens. None. And, in the case of Medicare and Medicaid, significant reforms must be made to ensure accurate billing and accountability for providers.
We are losing billions every year. The top end of the estimated amount of fraud is approaching what we spend on national defense. Right now, we're bailing out a sinking ship with a sieve, and it's not enough. It's just not enough. And, if you needed yet another reason to get out and vote in this year's midterms, this is it; if the Democrats manage to seize power in 2026 or 2028, the fraudsters, emboldened, will run wild.
