MARK MINNELLA: Fraud Is Robbing Normal Americans

(Photo by Daniel Torok/The White House via Getty Images)

In his recent joint address to Congress, President Donald Trump promised a balanced budget, and he appointed Vice President JD Vance to head a “war on fraud.” Later, in Detroit, Trump said that if the U.S. conquered its fraud problem, the budget could be balanced. He was referring to the kind of skullduggery found in Minnesota.

It’s hard to overstate this problem for regular American citizens. America is hemorrhaging taxpayer dollars through fraud and then borrowing money to cover the loss.

The national debt now exceeds $38 trillion. Annual deficits run in the trillions. At the same time, credible watchdog reports suggest entitlement fraud in programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid may be costing taxpayers between $200 billion and $500 billion each year. Even at the low end, the scale is staggering. (RELATED: Somali ‘Autism’ Center Chief Pleads Guilty To $6 Million Fraud Scheme)

If $300 billion per year is lost to fraud, that is nearly one-third of a trillion dollars siphoned from taxpayers annually. That money does not exist in surplus. It is borrowed. Interest is paid on it. The obligation is passed to the next generation.

We are borrowing money to fund fraud.

This is not abstract. It is not partisan. It is theft. It steals from workers who see payroll taxes deducted every pay period. It steals from seniors who depend on programs remaining solvent. It steals from families already squeezed by inflation and rising interest rates.

And yet the problem persists.

We are told the systems are outdated. We are told modernization is complicated. We are told reform takes time. That explanation grows less........

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