As we’ve written previously, Democrats have a habit of defending massive systemic fraud by opposing and demagoguing commonsense reforms as harmful “cuts” to programs. One would think government expansionists would have a powerful political incentive to combat waste and fraud within the programs they cherish because such abuses undermine public confidence in said programs — and might (read: should) inspire widespread skepticism about further expansion.
But many Democrats, quite affirmatively, do not care about such things.
The only acceptable direction of spending is up, always, featuring the largest increases they can get away with. At best, they are indifferent to fraud, apparently having concluded that misused funds can be hidden in the bloat or written off as the cost of compassion, and that their ideological allies in the ‘news’ media will generally ignore or run interference on these matters.
THE DEMOCRATS WHO COULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2028
As Minnesota’s rampant fraud scandal started to really bite, the Democrats who run that place seemed almost gleefully eager to pivot to attacking ICE when given the opportunity to do so. The facts about criminals’ industrial-grade robbery of their taxpayers were so damning that they’ve offered no compelling defense on the merits. Deflection and indignation became their play. Indeed, during a recent congressional hearing into the fraud scandal, which highlighted outrageous revelations from whistleblowers, many Democratic participants used their “questions” to demonize federal law enforcement.
But as ugly as Minnesota’s mess is, many anti-fraud and limited government advocates have warned that similar schemes have likely exploded all across the country — especially in places dominated by the waste-agnostic-to-supportive Party of Government.
Sure enough, the rot appears to run wide and deep, including in some red states. The Wall Street Journal reported on a wasteful reimbursement program in Indiana, for example, in which an autism charity was paid $29 million for treating just a few dozen patients. The woman who ran the program said she didn’t see “any oversight,” or at least “not much.” Indiana has since adjusted its policies. The Journal tracked an astonishing ballooning in taxpayer spending on similar so-called “autism services” since before the pandemic.
For Democrats, questioning such arrangements and seeking to tighten eligibility of oversight amounts to “mean-spirited cuts” to “vital care for disabled kids.” Much of the media framing echoes this partisan storyline. CBS News, which is now under new management (much to the chagrin of many leftist journalists), recently dipped a toe into another suspicious realm of potential fraud within California’s hospice care system. This is what their investigatory team found:
Medicare is federally administered, and hospices must be certified for reimbursement. But the state issues the licenses for hospices to operate. Three years ago, California’s state auditor sounded the alarm that Los Angeles County had seen a 1,500% increase in hospice companies since 2010. Per NBC News, this is more than six times the national average relative to its elderly population, and they are saying auditors estimated LA County hospices overbilled Medicare by $105 million in a single year.
GUY BENSON: BLUE-WAVE RED FLAGS
The report called out notable red flags — key warning signs of fraud. Since then, the problem has continued to fester.
CBS News examined the business and financial records of every hospice currently operating in LA County, applying the same indicators identified by the state. Indications of fraud have not stopped. In fact, they’ve grown. The CBS News analysis reveals that over 700 of the roughly 1,800 hospices in LA County trigger multiple red flags for fraud as defined by the state. Federal inspection records show regulators visited multiple suites in the Van Nuys building between 2021 and 2025 and found deficiencies. Nearly 40 companies in the CBS News analysis, for instance, share key personnel. State auditors consider the overlap of administrators, medical directors, or owners between multiple companies a potential red flag because “it raises questions about whether they are actually participating in the operations of any or all of those agencies.”
CBS News said they reached out to the 56 hospice offices whose data indicate they have at least five red flags. The outlet reports that “Many of the phone numbers were either disconnected or went straight to voicemail. One instructed the caller to text a different number, which turned out to be invalid.”
The story identifies one area of California as “ground zero for hospice fraud,” illustrated by “seven instances in which hospices that reported an average of zero patients in 2024 still submitted bills to Medicare.” On and on it goes. Many Democrats either bury their heads in the sand on this, or flail at other partisan targets as a means of distraction. On rare occasions, however, the Party of Government will identify an area of spending they’re willing to cut. It often involves law enforcement (think, ‘defund ICE’) or the military.
A current fascination is an attempted attack on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, with the story going that he’s wasted mountains of taxpayer cash on fancy meals. The problem with that critique? The meals in question are for troops on long deployments, which have been a common morale-booster for years. Various media outlets and online leftist influencers are painting the steak-and-lobster expenditures as evidence of Hegseth’s decadence. Many military veterans and their allies are pushing back hard.
“The Defense Dept spending money on shellfish, ice cream, and steak for servicemembers at war, many of whom have been at sea for a long time already, is not a scandal. This is just basic taking care of the troops,” one fumed. Former Michigan congressman Peter Meijer chimed in, ripping the fake controversy as “breathlessly stupid” and evidence of a “civil-military divide.” Another wrote, “when I was in the submarine force on Sundays underway we had surf & turf. Why was that? Because once a week we got to have a somewhat nicer meal as a reward for SPENDING YEARS OF OUR LIVES UNDERWATER so that people could make stupid points about non-news like this,” adding, “of all the things to pick from to criticize DoD for, this is the dumbest one I can think of.”
HUGO GURDON: TRUMP GETS THE LAST LAUGH
Similar examples abound. None of them stopped the most powerful Democrat on Capitol Hill from amplifying the specious, ignorant, phony outrage. Chuck Schumer denounced this “waste” in a tweet, prompting conservative national security journalist Jerry Dunleavy to observe, “the Democratic Senate Minority Leader has officially come out in opposition of U.S. troops getting to eat some surf & turf now and then.”
Democrats routinely excuse and embrace wasteful spending and outright fraud, while portraying any effort to curb criminal exploitation of tax dollars as vicious “cuts” to essential programs. While “Learing Center“-style criminal enterprises proliferate from coast to coast, the Party of Government demands ever-higher spending, always. Pay no heed to the grift and theft. More, more, more. Except, it seems, when it comes to long-deployed U.S. servicemembers getting treat meals from time to time. The leader of the fraud-enabling “Learing Center” party cannot abide such “waste,” he’ll have you know. While fraudsters are empowered and protected (sometimes for explicitly racial or partisan reasons), special meals for the troops is a bridge too far. Chuck on the troops: Let them eat MREs.