Today’s Reported Welfare Fraud is Massive, but Not the Whole Picture
In recent months, fresh reports of shocking welfare fraud have surfaced like cockroaches scattering when the kitchen light flips on. Yet for those of us who have been sounding the alarm over the taxpayer ripoff industry for more than half a century, this is not some sudden outbreak. It is merely the tip of a colossal iceberg of government-enabled thievery that has been growing annually.
Conservative Republicans and independent writers (including this one) have been pointing fingers at the growing epidemic of fraud across federal, state, and local welfare programs for more than 50 years. And what has been the response from big-government liberal Democrats? They expanded, promoted, and fiercely protected these programs with all the zeal of a mother hen guarding her chicks—except these “chicks” are fraudsters on an epic scale.
The left-wing welfare establishment has long looked the other way because welfare is not primarily about helping the needy. It is the existential lifeblood of their political power. By fostering dependency among an ever-expanding underclass—particularly in Democrat-run urban ghettoes—they have created generations hooked on government checks rather than opportunity. They promise economic “survival” as opposed to success or upward mobility.
Much of this so-called welfare has become a sophisticated trap, a gilded cage that keeps recipients politically loyal while taxpayers foot the ever-growing bill. It is less a safety net and more a hammock strung between the pillars of bureaucratic incompetence and partisan self-interest.
The appropriation of taxpayer dollars is never well-supervised, but welfare takes this negligence to Olympic levels. There are two primary reasons. First, the sheer magnitude of government taxing and spending creates the illusion of unlimited funds—an endless river of other people’s money that progressives treat as their personal piggy bank for addressing every economic ill. Why bother with accountability when the spigot flows freely?
Second—and here is where cynicism reaches operatic heights—those defrauding the system provide exactly the same political support and benefits as those legally enrolled. That’s right. Their illicit income stream, however dishonest, keeps them tethered to the Democrat patronage machine just as firmly as legal recipients. Republican reforms are the threat – and those are dismissed as racist.
Another problem is that even those who qualify legally do so under eligibility rules set so low they resemble invitations to an all-you-can-eat economic buffet rather than a targeted lifeline. Fraud on taxpayers is not confined to individual welfare cheats. It infests academia through grant scams and padded research budgets, corporate welfare via subsidies mislabeled as “investments,” and the medical-industrial complex—doctors, hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical giants, and equipment manufacturers—all dipping into the public trough with alarming regularity.
Whether through outright fraud or laughably generous requirements, big-government Democrats reap the rewards as the advocates of the status quo. This explains why the vast majority of welfare recipients reliably register as Democrats. It is the reason racially segregated and oppressed minority communities—trapped in cycles of poverty perpetuated by the very policies sold as salvation—remain Democratic strongholds. The party has mastered the art of turning poverty into power through a form of bribery.
Billions Down the Drain
The current crackdown under the Trump administration has exposed the rot in vivid detail. In Minnesota, Medicaid fraud has been estimated in the billions, with schemes so brazen they allegedly funneled taxpayer dollars to terror groups abroad. Daycare centers run by Somali immigrants exploded from a projected $2.6 million annual cost to more than $100 million in some cases, The response from the Trump administration has been federal investigations and freezes on funding. Federal prosecutors have charged numerous individuals in organized rings.
California, that bastion of progressive governance, has seen massive identity theft-related fraud, with $125 billion in embezzled funds in one category alone – with more to come. Federal actions targeted hospice and healthcare scams stealing tens of millions in the LA area. Illinois, New York, and Colorado round out the list of states where Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services has frozen billions in childcare, TANF, and social services funding based on “massive amounts of fraud” and eligibility failures.
These are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a systemic disease. Arrests, indictments, and convictions are ticking up as federal task forces dig in, yet the recovered sums remain a pittance compared to the losses. Taxpayers are left holding the bag for what amounts to institutionalized vote-buying.
The History of Welfare Fraud
This fight is nothing new. Welfare fraud has plagued the system since the Great Society expansions of the 1960s. Lyndon Johnson’s ambitious programs ballooned spending, but oversight lagged woefully behind. By the 1970s, organizations like the National Welfare Fraud Association (predecessor to today’s United Council on Welfare Fraud) were established to combat the growing problem. Estimates of fraud, waste, and abuse reached 10 percent or higher, with food stamp trafficking rings operating in major cities like Chicago, St. Louis, and Philadelphia. Prisoners were listed as household members, benefits were traded for cash, guns, drugs—you name it.
President Ronald Reagan famously highlighted the “welfare queen” archetype, drawing from real cases of massive fraud that fueled public outrage. Throughout the 1980s and beyond, task forces uncovered indictments numbering in the thousands, with losses in the billions even then. Yet Democrats consistently resisted meaningful reforms, preferring to expand programs without adequate safeguards and decry critics as heartless. The 1996 welfare reform under President Clinton offered temporary restraint, but subsequent expansions—especially under Presidents Obama and Biden—reopened the floodgates. Pandemic-era programs supercharged fraud, with unemployment insurance scams alone costing and estimated $100 to $135 billion a year.
For more than five decades, conservative Republicans have warned that without strict eligibility verification, work requirements, and relentless auditing, welfare becomes a magnet for abuse. Democrats countered with accusations of racism and calls for more spending. The result? Trillions of taxpayer dollars illegally spent, dependency entrenched, and urban communities left in cycles of despair while Democrat political machines thrived.
The outrage here is not merely financial—though the waste of hard-earned taxpayer dollars is criminal enough. It is moral. True compassion demands helping people rise, not subsidizing their stagnation for electoral gain. Analogies abound. Welfare fraud is like a casino where the house (Democrats) always wins, the players (recipients) stay hooked, and the spectators (taxpayers) pay for the lights, the drinks and the rigged tables.
It is time—long past time—for root-and-branch reform. End the illusion of unlimited funds and impose real accountability. Prioritize citizens and lawful residents.
The current investigations in California, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, and elsewhere are a promising start, but they must lead to systemic change across the multi-level welfare system. Not another round of temporary meaningless finger-wagging.
The dependency machine must be dismantled, one fraudulent claim at a time. Only then can we replace shoots with ladders and power politics with genuine economic opportunity for the American people. The alternative is more of the same — an ever-expanding underclass voting for the very policies that keep them poor and oppressed. That is not compassion. It is calculated cynicism.
The left-wing Democrat establishment has made welfare a faux civil right – replacing traditional constitutional rights of personal freedom, social mobility, economic independence and participation in America’s exceptional opportunity society with a monthly welfare check.
The massive welfare that we see being uncovered today is neither accidental nor new. It is not the bulk of the problem. It is not the result of unanticipated consequences. It is the culmination of decades long strategy of trading welfare for power.
So, there ‘tis.
This story is one of Larry’s worst, combining historical urban myths long debunked, inaccurate definitions of what welfare even is, and false allegations of his obsession with liberals and th Democratic party which he feels is the historical cause of all of our problems in government, culture, and the American way as he defines it: Mayberry. His “old man” thinking has never been on higher display.
Larry’s delusion of welfare is that “the left-wing welfare establishment has long looked the other way because welfare is not primarily about helping the needy. It is the existential lifeblood of their political power.” He cannot prove this; he has no statistical facts to support this, just some anecdotes, some of which are not even considered welfare. BUSTED for lying, again.
I think we need a cognitive test.
Larry is talking welfare; that’s 80-100 anti-poverty and social welfare programs. Larry decries that not one of them is helping the needy and each one is only about establishing and retaining power by their mere existence, not to mention allowing fraud. The current regime of the Felon King stands in stark relief to that addled concept proving Larry is wrong; we lost the power, dude. You won, you own the oval, the Congress, the SCOTUS, the US court of appeals, just the district courts only lean 40% your way. You have more power than we, old man.
I actually think there’s some merit to some of this, but Larry has confused the issue, has no statistics to back up his confused claims, and is way off base, off target, with his theory that he has postulating for half a decade to no avail. Because it’s a lie, and stupid.
Anyone enrolled in welfare should work 40 hours a week. With some time off if their work is satisfactory. Excepting people who are disabled. Which is most of the brain dead democrats.
Larry lies that “Fraud on taxpayers is not confined to individual welfare cheats. It infests academia through grant scams and padded research budgets, corporate welfare via subsidies mislabeled as “investments,” and the medical-industrial complex—doctors, hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical giants, and equipment manufacturers—all dipping into the public trough with alarming regularity.” He starts by expanding the definition of welfare to include grants, subsidies, research, and doctors, hospitals, clinics, pharma, and even medical equipment makers. No one calls “grants” welfare. Does Larry want to end all government sponsored grants and research? His Felon King is active doing just that. Next covid perhaps there will be no mRNA miracle that took over a decade of research to save the world in covid. No, he is fear mongering harkening on your distrust of anything government, that government is not a righteous manager, and that all things bad in the world, and government, are liberal.
Apparently, his real repressed fear is looking in the mirror. Buck up old man, turn on the light and look at yourself and your party. Or walking a mile in the other fellow’s shoes to see what these programs really mean.
First, there’s intentional fraud and fraud through improper payments. I think Larry just puts em all in the same bag. Most fraud is improper payments, administration error. Intentional fraud is quite low, and mostly perpetrated by business like the Somali cases which are the businesses, not the individuals not getting the payments. We don’t know how Larry counts, but guessing it’s all the same to him given all monies squandered for any program or project out there is welfare to Larry.
The 100 welfare programs run up a $1.6T tab; Larry’s Felon King is asking for $1.7T for defense, currently they have just over $1T, so Larry must be looking to trade butter for guns, again.
Medicaid is about $600B; the largest welfare program by budget. It provides health insurance to low-income adults, children, pregnant women, and people with disabilities. Does Larry want to end Medicaid payments to rednecks without insurance? Its intentional fraud is quite low, about 1%. Improper payments run just over 6%, 77% of these are eligible but paperwork is wrong. Maybe Larry and Musk can fix that since paperwork is the cause of most dollars here. Managed jointly by federal and state governments meaning Red States probably cheat more than Blue States, although I have no proof. Real intentional fraud is estimated at 1-3% with most of that not by individual, but by business.
SNAP or food stamps is the second highest welfare budget, about $100B versus that defense $1T boogey. SNAP also has about 1% fraud, mostly administrative errors. In SNAP, for every $10K SNAP, $11 is fraud, 1/3 is administration errors. Much of this fraud is white collar perpetrated by business owners like in the Minn. Somali affair. This is not the recipients, but the middle men doing the crime. About 100 have been charged; the kingpin is a white woman, not Somali, but the preponderance are of Somali descent. It is not the welfare mom for generations living the highlife here, but businesspeople crooks.
The budget numbers dwindle for the remaining 80+ programs: EITC tax credits are the biggest about $100B with a high fraud rate of over 6%; however, mostly paperwork complexity errors, very few intentional.
But gets to be Trump chump change after that, budget wise. Pools, ballrooms, and triumphal arches cost more. TANF for example, money for the homeless to find refuge is $17B. Housing assistance $60B, SSI $50B are the bigger ones.
Larry shows you some shocking anecdotes but avoids statistics as real quantitative, scientific assessments prove him a liar. He lies so can’t show you or speak to the truth. Not to mention that everyone in Larry’s anecdotes has been caught.
I spell my name: D A N G E R, but only to those who shade the truth. Need some more sun, Larry?
And to finish my trifecta rendition of “three rants in the fountain….”
Larry is trapped in the past spewing the same trash as he spewed in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’ until this very day when he says “by fostering dependency among an ever-expanding underclass—particularly in Democrat-run urban ghettoes—they have created generations hooked on government checks rather than opportunity.” He cannot prove this; he has not facts to support list.
BUSTED for lying, again. Larry claims “generations hooked on government checks.” This may have been true in Larry’s prime, but untrue since Clinton fixed it in 1996.
The truth Larry won’t tell you: TANF, temporary assistance for needy families (note the word TEMPORARY Larry. Do you see “generations” in temporary?) has a lifetime benefit on 60 months in most States. It’s been that way since 1996, 20 years after you began your welfare screed, old man. Some states have 24- or 48-month lifetime limits. BUSTED, lying, outdated, old.
SNAP has no lifetime limit, but many limitations on the $$$ handed out. Able-bodied adults without dependents are typically limited to 3 months of benefits in a 3-year period unless they meet specific work or training metrics. To extend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits beyond the standard three-month limit for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD), you must document and complete at least 80 hours per month (about 20 hours per week) of qualifying work or training activities. I think kids are forever. As I feel they should be; Larry probably wants to take the food from these kid’s mouths. What this means is 3 months that can only be extended by working; there’s a 3-year window before you can apply and if it’s generational, these folks going hungry for much of that time.
I don’t exactly see generations of checks in this: BUSTED, lying, outdated, old.
Unemployment is 26 weeks, think you cannot reapply until 52 weeks after working for 20 weeks; these interval numbers may vary by state. This is a lifetime benefit with hiccups in time, like SNAP but not exactly generational or constant.
Larry stupidly says: “Pandemic-era programs supercharged fraud, with unemployment insurance scams alone costing and estimated $100 to $135 billion a year.” I say with big dollars, big programs, invented on-the-fly at warp speed, and handed out at the speed of light from programs invented last night comes big lies and big steals. No duh. If you think the covid payments had issues; audit the freaking Iran war for fraud, grift, and theft. Ask yourself, which came first: the Trump boys investing in defense, in drones, big time, OR the Iran war? Answer: Don’s boy’s drone investment is about 1 year before Don found them a reason for our military that Trump alone commands to need more drones. Kid’s newly invested companies include: Powerus Corporation for partial ownership, American Ventures, both brothers in so working together, Vulcan Elements, don jr’s venture capital firm fronted, and Xtend, Israeli defense company invested in by Eric. Yeah, wanna bet the Trumps never bought into any defense firms before the election? In all honesty, I am sure that’s chump chance compared to the “experts” defrauding the war efforts. “We did not enlist to support daddies wars of choice, but we did enlist in companies for profit from them. A lot of them. For millions.
Larry, covid grifts are not exactly the systemic, generational, policy based, frauds you were attempting to talk about. It seems you digressed.
Why not digress into the fraud of the ballroom, pool painting, and that stupid replica of the iconic French arch? You got the fraud of just doing it not to mention the fraud perpetrated by the vendors hand selected by Trump and probably, on top, kicking back bucks or services to Trump.
Or how about Trump suing himself for taxes, then dropping suit but taking the money for his cash-for-criminals payola scheme. $1.776 billion for cop beaters, many of who pled guilty. Under Trump, and Larry loves the policies, crime does pay.
Bottom line: Larry is way off base on the facts on this and seems to be living in the past, pre-Bill Clinton, to be exact. Just another fear monger banging those tropes and urban myths from the 60’s and 70’s of those welfare mom’s eating lobster, watching their large-screen tv’s with their brand new ev-caddy parked by the curb in da hood.
I spell my name: D A N G E R and I like facts with numbers, statistics, and such. Sources available upon request but mostly the government. Trump’s government.
Frank Danger … I always know when I am right and hit a nerve. You go for hyper ugly … serial ad hominin attacks … cheap childish insults…. and false accusations. You have outdone yourself with this three-part unhinged rant. The only danger you pose is to your own reputation. Get a life old man.
If that’s your metric for right, it’s a sad measure for sure.
Busted seven ways till Sunday and all you can do in whine about ad hominem attacks. A lie. Show us an example. I think you are beyond thin skinned and can dish it out but can’t take it.
Only a Horist would equate a grant with welfare.
Frank Danger …I feel I own you an explanation since your reading comprehensions is a neurological issues or you jealous obsession to be the anti-Horist is on overtime. i was bringing into the discussion all the areas in which Government money is subjected to massive fraud. And in terms of the taxpayer, welfare money and subsidies and grants are essentially the same — and all are subject to massive waste and fraud. Come on, Frank. You can do better, To put it bluntly, you are making yourself look stupid.
Dunger can’t stand to be called out.
Paul goff … He’s just taken over by a malignant obsession — more worthy of pity than anger. He uses the site to vent nasty insults and and long trash arguments as a helpless contrarian.
Pull DunGoff: a recap: Larry farcically says about himself: “I always know when I am right and hit a nerve.” This is similar Trumpian fractured logic like: “if it takes time to count the votes, they cheated.” Or “I will start no new wars so we pummel them with bombs and call it an “excursion” and then claim we won as our helicopters fall from the sky (thank God we got our folks back, wonder if it was a Trump-kid’s drone?)
He claims “cheap childish insults,” but he cannot prove this. I think it’s thin skin. He claims ‘false accusations, “cannot prove.”
I claim “this story is one of Larry’s worst, combining historical urban myths long debunked, inaccurate definitions of what welfare even is, and false allegations of his obsession with liberals and th Democratic party which he feels is the historical cause of all of our problems in government, culture, and the American way as he defines it: Mayberry.”
I busted his theory by showing that IF we have been doing this for decades for power, it sure did not work, by showing him that his party has all the power in all three branches, and beyond.
I busted him on his whacko definition of “welfare” that includes welfare PLUS almost any government expenditure. That’s just crazy talk. College professors, researchers, farmers, big oil, etc. are not poor people.
I busted him statistically and multiple times on his suspected YUGE fraud for which he has no statistics, just anecdotal data which proves nothing. My source was government numbers and it’s around 1% for many programs. Most fraud is paperwork errors, but for intentional fraud, most often by business owners, not individual recipients.
I busted him multiple times on his “generational checks” by showing him the time limits and other limits on welfare, by program, according to the government.
I have busted him over and over here, mostly sourced to government statistics, making this, IMO, his worst story ever on PBP. Until the next one :>)
Little Paul: consider yourself called upon to refute anything, but with facts this time, not emotions like a child.
Frank Danger… One of the saddest and most pathetic parts of your many, many, many looooooong mendacious comments is that you may actual believe all those self-serving claims you make about yourself and others are true. You seem to think that the fact that no one takes up your challenge to refute each and every bit of misinformation you write as a victory or vindication. Your bs is voluminous, You rebuttals are weak. Your self judgments are wrong, You insults and nasty remarks a childish. The impact of your writing is nil. So, why would any rational intelligent person waste time appeasing you lust for recognition. You just refuse to understand. Your are not worth the time and effort. So .. live in your delusional world. Nobody cares. Get it?
I know when I hit a nerve that I am right.
Larry Horist
You are way off base on this article; I proved it, you know it, and using the same old personal attacks won’t change that.
There’s one more, a real peach. .
Larry, yes a buck is a buck the world round and if you lump em all together, that’s OK, that’s a view. BUT THAT VIEW AIN’T WELFARE and never will be. So, perhaps you should have just said that in the first place and defined your term correctly.
I have taken some time and effort on this story because I do agree with Larry there is a problem here. It’s just that I do not agree with Larry’s inane 40-year old urban myths as the root cause which I thoroughly BUSTED based on the Felon’s King’s government numbers.
Let’s move on to what I see as the higher priority problem and some solutions. Larry’s solutions are to stop government programs. That’s lame in my book. As an alternative, he favors deregulation. I say, that depends, but IMO, deregulation does not cure all ills but instead many times results in evil unintended outcomes.
Larry is correct that Democrats invented welfare, it’s our baby, and Republicans have traditionally done squat for people in need. PERIOD. Modern welfare was invented in the US by team FDR during The Great Depression creating Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and Aid to Dependent Children (AFDC) in 1935. Democrats expanded that in the 1960’s under LBJ’s Great Society with Medicare, Medicaid, and Food Stamps. The welfare state, or safety net, depending on your perspective, and the urban myth of the welfare Mom living high on the hog, for generations, on the dole, in the city, was founded in the 60’s and perhaps had a ring of truth as LBJ and the Democrats pushed social programs too far, too fast. This MIGHT be the situation today as well, but today due to a proliferation and confusion of too many programs. Call it welfare-creep, just like we fixed in 96. Also in the creep are tons of Red State rural Republicans getting welfare; the Redneck Welfare State if you will. It exists and these folks deserve a helping hand, a hand up, but not handouts. Same for our urban poor.
Democrats under Bill Clinton changed all that in 1996 by ending the AFDC program, replaced it with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Clinton imposed strict time limits and mandatory work requirements to encourage recipients to transition into the workforce. These were actually Republican ideas that they could not get done. Bill got er done. Larry was there. He must forget.
I think Larry’s fraud, being around 1%, is the lesser priority against two higher priority issues: 1) the rising cost of healthcare and 2) the sheer magnitude of 80+ programs. Not saying we need to cut budget even, but we must start to simplify the overall program to a manageable number of elements which I think will lead to smaller budgets.
Medicaid is the welfare devil given the rising costs of health. It can be tied to the non-welfare Medicare program with its rising costs and terrible funding mechanism. The majority of our welfare budget, it’s well over 50% of $1T+ goes to Medicaid. Add Medicare and the combined budget dollars double our defense budget. Globally, our numbers suck, the world beats us hands down in healthcare spending. And our services are not that much better for the additional cost. We just spend too much. The programs are not the main problem; the rising costs are. Social Security, not really welfare, is an arms-length sinking fund pre-funded by employment taxes. That’s a good thing IMO. It’s easy to see budget issues, difficult to merge with or steal from other budgets, and it funds our debt. FDR was kind of forced there by having to make it a tax program to be Constitutional but it is brilliantly unique, funding structure-wise. AI says: “Social Security uses a trust fund and payroll taxes to function as a self-financing, earned-benefit system. Medicare uses the general fund and yearly taxes because healthcare costs are too unpredictable to pre-fund, requiring the government to continuously balance the program using broader tax.”
I say bullshit to that and LBJ and company just fucked up. Medicare is stupidly funded for the next year by the previous year’s tax receipts taxes making it a real-time drain on yearly budgets with no arms-length budget separation. It always runs a deficit now so we end up borrowing from the Chinese to cure our colds. It’s an open-ended drain on current budget, it is merged with all General Fund expenditures and budgets, creating our debt, while almost hidden from our sight. Frankly, compared to Larry’s welfare moms, Medicare/aid moms jigger the entire market to rip us off and they don’t even get the large screen TVs. And we let them. Think about it: you buy insurance to cover your medical and to lobby for lower prices. You pay like 25% of retail for scripts and services as they, Medicare and insurance, lobby for. The indigent are charged 100% of retail, but don’t pay, get it for free, and you and I then cover that cost through our insurance premiums. That’s just whack. That is neither an open nor free market. It’s just broken. Cannot be repaired. It is financially, structurally flawed, it is not driven by normal supply/demand, it is not capitalism in action, it is unique as a market and always will be.
Here’s the rub. ObamaCare was always a fix, a patch, a step one in the long process to provide an alternative to our current process. It is our most aggressive health care coverage program since Medicaid/are was invented. You did not make it better; you only tried multiple times to kill; you never provided viable alternatives. I give up. It’s time to take the next step to replace ObamaCare,
At this point, I agree with Bernie: tear it all down for universal healthcare that looks like Medicare and empower Medicare to take down the current market model. We all can pay for that with our tax dollars; we are pretty much there already, we will get what we pay for and we will erase the 100% retail price for the poor, and not so poor who are uninsured bringing the average price down overnight. The rich, and the rest of us can get the same options and preferred service on the side, just like today’s Medicare Advantage and Supplemental Insurance plans. Think about the best advantage in this: you get to KILL ObamaCare!!!
The major welfare programs are just a handful, as I noted, but there are 80-100 programs in total. While Larry’s fraud is a flashy issue, fraud is not the major issue with our welfare system. It’s the quagmire that 80-100 programs create. No one knows what to do, where to go, the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness has to waste money left and right. Rather that Larry’s pursuit of fraud and his delusion to close it all down, I looked to real conservatives at the Economic Policy Innovation Center or EPIC to frame my concept that what we need to begin with is some housecleaning, consolidation, right-sizing of these programs down to the necessary few, a baker’s dozen might be a good target. Heck, just firing 80 directors to replace with a baker’s dozen is a great start. Here is EPIC’s overview, and note the they do not even mention fraud. It’s a good read, and seems that EPIC is going away, too bad, they seem like real conservatives. I say: focus on the chart and tell me there isn’t something very wrong here.
*https://epicforamerica.org/social-programs/epic-explainers-the-1-trillion-welfare-bureaucracy/*
Think about it, Trump and Musk took apart the government, hit anything foreign pretty hard, but left the safety net morass budget basically alone. Why? Probably the stakeholders. He did fire folks which slowed the payment system, but the organizations and monies are still there.
This is the problem Larry avoids; the sheer magnitude of the programs plus the support system created that now wants not only to survive, but thrive and expand by lobbying for more and against less. Clinton put time limits on welfare recipients in 1996. It helped and unlike us liberals said, no one died from it. Thanks for the idea, too bad you couldn’t get it done. Today, our quagmire makes it hard for folks to get a helping hand, hard for legislators to manage the helping hand, and an infrastructure unmanageable for efficiency and effectiveness. Not sure we need to defund, but we certainly could profit from rightsizing 80 programs to a dozen or so.
What is wrong with Congress not to take this on? Why does it not happen?
One issue is the Larry’s of the world keep fishing for the red herring of fraud, and we then spend our days debating is there or isn’t there. And since there isn’t, nothing happens. I say the problem starts with the fact (and Larry agrees, but ascribes it to Democrat’s power grab) that the welfare state is a state, established, entrenched, and enshrined, and no matter what you try to do, someone is against it. It’s a state, it’s a market, it wants to not only survive, but thrive. There are powerful supporters and lobbyists for all sides of any welfare issue. Stakeholders include recipients, dems and repubs, the obvious examples. But perhaps even more powerful stakeholders also include the entire welfare infrastructure firmly established and entrenched for decades and hell bent not on surviving, but thriving, expanding, growing. These are often good folks like the folks making the food, distributing the food, managing the housing, building the housing, drug rehabs, meth programs, kids breakfasts, etc. etc. Real people determined to really fight for their way of life. In Portland, for example, they can’t make any moves without some significant lobby pushing back. End a housing program and low-income housing makers rise up. Expand a housing program and existing residents rise up under NIMBY. Meanwhile poor people pour in for the expanded opportunity of low-cost housing creating an even larger lobby of the poor. It’s a crash dive to bankruptcy that is difficult to pull out from.
IMO, that’s our top priority issue, the sheer magnitude of 80 programs with improvements starting with simplification, rightsizing, of the entire morass down to a reasonable few. Then we can better attack the budget; the largest element being Medicare and Medicaid. Given the entrenched stakeholders lobbying against anything, it will be a tough fight that needs to be bipartisan to work, not some asshole with a chainsaw.