Vice President JD Vance, who tapped by President Donald Trump to combat fraud nationwide, on Wednesday said that the country’s social safety net would disappear unless we take combatting fraud more seriously.
“So tonight, although it started four months ago, I am officially announcing the war on fraud, to be led by our great Vice President, JD Vance. He’ll get it done. We will actually have a balanced budget overnight. It’ll go very quickly. That’s the kind of money you’re talking about,” Trump said during his State of the Union address, tapping the vice president to lead the administration’s effort to combat fraud.
Vance said at a press conference with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz:
Here’s what I think, I mean look, what we’re certainly going to make sure that our anti-fraud efforts go after the fraudsters and not after anybody who actually benefits from these services. But, I actually think the question is a little off in a way because the problem is not going after the fraud.
The problem is the fact that these programs are being defrauded to begin with. They will not exist. Our social safety net will disappear unless we take fraud more seriously. So, what I’m most worried about is it unless we preserve these programs for the next generation they’re going to disappear and all the money’s going to go to fraudsters. [Emphasis added]
Vance also announced that the Trump administration “temporarily” halted certain Medicaid funding to Minnesota until the state government leads to be “good stewards” of taxpayer money.
“We’re announcing today, that we have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligation seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money,” Vance said during the press conference.
“One of the examples of fraud that we’ve seen in Minnesota, that we verified that is just awful, is that a program that existed to ensure that autistic children had access to some after school services, has made a number of people rich,” Vance continued.
“Not by providing services to needy children, but by allowing fraudsters to take money that ought-by-right go to American citizens, and to American families, and to set up sham businesses, set up sham clients, set up people who are not even autistic but claim to be autistic in order that they benefit from the money that’s out there.”
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