Six Things On Fraud
from Minnesota Indivisible Alliance
Fraud is going to come up a lot between now and November. We’ve written about it before, but now that the primaries are over, these arguments are going to get louder. So here are some points worth remembering.
1. FRAUD WAS REAL. SO ARE THE FIXES.
People stole public money. Minnesota missed warning signs. The people responsible are being prosecuted and sent to prison — Feeding Our Future alone has produced at least 68 convictions.
Minnesota has tightened screening, paused enrollment in high-risk programs, increased reviews before claims are paid and put high-risk Medicaid services under additional scrutiny. Minnesota’s Medicaid improper-payment rate is a little over 2.1 percent, compared with 6.1 percent nationally. Improper payments are not the same as fraud, but the comparison matters.
Gov. Walz has acknowledged the failures happened on his watch and backed changes to fix them. You can argue about whether enough has been done. But “Minnesota ignored fraud and did nothing” is not true.
2. MINNESOTA IS NOT THE FRAUD CAPITAL OF AMERICA.
Minnesota has had serious fraud. Nobody should minimize it. But fraud is not some uniquely Minnesota disease.
Trump’s own CMS called Republican-led Florida a health-care fraud “hotspot” this year. Florida has seen individual health-care fraud schemes on an enormous scale, including one that produced more than $1 billion in false Medicare claims.
Fraud happens in red states. It happens in blue states. It happens wherever large amounts of money and weak controls give criminals an opening.
What has not been shown is that Minnesota is uniquely corrupt. So when somebody calls Minnesota the fraud capital of America, ask: compared with where? Show us the numbers.
3. “SOMALI FRAUD” IS RACISM. FULL STOP.
Some people charged in Minnesota fraud cases are Somali American. If they stole money, prosecute them. Put them in prison.
But being from Somali is not a crime. Fraud is.
When a white businessman runs a Ponzi scheme, we do not call it “white fraud,” “Norwegian fraud” or “German fraud.” We hold the criminal responsible. We do not smear everyone who shares his ancestry. So when a politician uses “Somali fraud” in an ad or speech, ask them if they really are saying all Somalis are criminals.
Operation Metro Surge is what happens fraud, Somalis and immigration get tangled together politically. Ask them if that’s what they want to see our neighbors and co-workers get trashed by association.
And tell them that there’s no place for that gutter politics in Minnesota.
4. FRAUD IS THE EXCUSE. THE SAFETY NET IS THE TARGET.
Someone steals from a bank. We don’t shut down banking. Someone steals from Medicaid. That does not make Medicaid the problem.
Fix the holes. Prosecute the fraud. Protect taxpayer money. But do not make a senior, a child or a person with a disability pay because somebody else stole from a program they depend on.
Most health-care fraud is not committed by beneficiaries. The people stealing the big money are overwhelmingly providers, suppliers and other businesses billing the programs.
The fraudster is the problem. The person who needs Medicaid is not.
And Republicans were pushing deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance long before Minnesota fraud became their favorite talking point. Fraud now gives them another argument for doing something they already wanted to do.
So when fraud suddenly becomes a reason to cut the safety net, call it out.
5. REPUBLICANS DON’T GET TO PRETEND THEIR HANDS ARE CLEAN.
Democrats own the failures on their watch. Republicans should own theirs.
In 2017, when Republicans controlled the Legislature, they passed a budget bill that would have cut 87 DHS positions, including staff responsible for investigating fraud and abuse. Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed it.
Other opportunities to strengthen safeguards died with bipartisan fingerprints on them. Some of the programs later exploited by fraudsters expanded with weaknesses already built into their structure.
And then there is Joe Thompson.
Thompson helped lead the Feeding Our Future prosecutions. He was Minnesota’s top federal fraud prosecutor and one of the people warning most loudly about the problem.
Trump’s Justice Department pushed the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate Renee Good’s widow after Good was killed by an immigration agent. Thompson and five other Minnesota federal prosecutors resigned.
While Republicans were yelling that Minnesota wasn’t serious enough about fraud, Trump’s Justice Department was losing some of the prosecutors actually putting fraudsters in prison.
If fraud is your priority, protect the fraud prosecutors.
6. NO DOUBLE STANDARD ON FRAUD.
Donald Trump has pardoned scores of people convicted of financial crimes, wiping away hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, restitution and other penalties.
One was nursing-home executive Joseph Schwartz, who pleaded guilty in a $38 million tax-fraud case and spent nearly $1 million lobbying for clemency before Trump pardoned him.
The same political movement demanding maximum accountability for Minnesota fraud is remarkably quieter when Trump is helping the fraudster.
Where are the Minnesota Republican ads about that? Where is the outrage for the victims?
Fraud does not become less wrong because the person convicted knows the right people.
BOTTOM LINE
When someone says, “But the fraud is real,” say yes.
Yes, it was real. Yes, Minnesota missed warning signs. Yes, prosecute people. Yes, keep fixing the systems.
Then keep going.
Why is Minnesota supposedly uniquely corrupt? Why call it “Somali fraud”? Why should innocent people lose health care or food assistance because somebody else stole from those programs? Why do Republicans erase their own role in weak oversight? And why does the outrage get quieter when Trump pardons fraudsters?
Fraud is real. So is racism. So is selective outrage.
Prosecute the fraud. Recover the money. Fix what failed. Make accountability apply to everyone.
