Washington Post calls for welfare reform after Minnesota fraud scandal

The Washington Post editorial board called on the Trump administration to push for “meaningful reform” of the nation’s welfare programs, particularly the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), after independent journalist Nick Shirley. recently exhibited more than $100 million in fraud allegedly took place in Minnesota’s child care system.

In a Wednesday editorial, the outlet said Shirley’s investigation led to Somalia fraud scandal in Minnesota finally piercing the national conscience, joking that such a “spirit of scrupulousness would have been fine a few billion taxpayer dollars ago.”

“As America’s welfare state has expanded into more than 80 major federal programs, they have become a target-rich environment for suspected crooks like those in Minneapolis. Walz’s mess underscores the need for serious reforms across America.” the Post argued. “It’s a shame that too many progressive leaders are, at best, lackadaisical in their fight against fraud and error, for fear it will cut social services.”

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The editorial board argued that this lackadaisical attitude toward cracking down on fraud is “especially true when it comes to open-ended benefit programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.”

Several Democratic states, the Post notes, have filed lawsuits to block the Trump administration’s efforts to “eliminate waste and fraud” by threatening to withhold SNAP funding from states that refuse to share recipient data, including their immigration status.

The outlet added that it was still unclear whether the Trump administration could legally withhold funding, and that blue states were granted a preliminary injunction in October that temporarily blocked the request.

“The truth is that SNAP doesn’t just help the hungry,” the Post asserted. “This was the fourth highest documented fraud rate among all federal programs from 2018 to 2022, at $10.5 billion.”

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As the Post noted, Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey criticized the administration’s approach, saying the president Donald Trump it’s “playing politics with the ability of working parents with children, the elderly and people with disabilities to have food.”

The outlet responded to this concern by highlighting the state’s own record, noting that “Massachusetts had a 14% error rate on SNAP payments in fiscal year 2024 — the seventh highest in the nation,” and that nationally, “overpayments accounted for a larger share of the error rate than underpayments.”

“The tax bill passed in July requires states with error rates above 6% to pay up to 15% of the cost of benefits by 2028. A two-year buffer was put in place to give states with high error rates, like Alaska, more time to get their act together — but why should the worst offenders get special treatment? » asked the editorial committee.

“The left claims Trump wants Americans to go hungry, but if an individual shouldn’t be eligible for food stamps in the first place, where is the cruelty in making sure the benefits go to someone who is?”

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The Post reiterated that while “states clearly need to do a better job of policing welfare recipients,” the Trump administration has “an opportunity to push for meaningful reform.”

However, he warned that it would be a mistake to “squander it by using waste and fraud as an excuse to make inefficient cuts or by using recipient data to fuel a mass eviction crusade.”

After Shirley’s video alleging widespread fraud in Minnesota’s child care system went viral, the Post said the Trump administration used that momentum to justify freezing all child care payments to the state. The outlet warned that eliminating the safety net entirely would “hurt more than just fraudsters.”

Instead of freezing all state child care payments, the editorial board said the federal government should “promote reforms that encourage more responsible spending, such as block grants,” arguing that by offering a fixed amount of funding, “Washington could encourage states to spend more prudently and scrutinize recipients more carefully.”

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“Social safety nets collapse when most taxpayers feel like welfare money is going to people who don’t deserve it. The point of welfare isn’t to spend as much as possible. It’s to ensure that truly vulnerable people get the help they need without becoming dependent on government handouts. Examining the food stamp rolls is a small step in that direction,” the Post concludes.