If you're not familiar with Leeja's channel, I highly recommend it. I've been watching her for years and really appreciate her (well-researched) deep dives into topics related to politics, government, and law.

I'm trying to understand the liberal perspective on this without any gotchas...

The Minnesota fraud scandals have been huge news lately: federal prosecutors estimate potentially $9B+ stolen from 14 state-run programs since 2018 (half or more of the $18B disbursed), including child nutrition (Feeding Our Future), child care assistance (CCAP with "ghost" centers), autism services, and housing programs. Dozens of centers billed for non-existent services, with funds allegedly going to luxury cars, homes, overseas properties, etc.Examples that stand out: "Quality Learing Center" (sign misspells "learning", are you kidding) in Minneapolis: millions in subsidies despite 95+ violations, empty during visits, blacked-out. Fruad. actual, measureable, fruad.

Nationally, improper payments/fraud in federal programs hit $162B in FY2024, with child care and welfare vulnerabilities in states like Illinois, California, etc.—not just Minnesota.

Critics (across parties) blame weak oversight, self-reporting loopholes, and pandemic waivers. Gov. Walz has implemented fixes (e.g., fraud unit, payment stops), and there's bipartisan pushback now.

But why doesn't this level of direct taxpayer theft (billions vanishing while programs meant for vulnerable kids/families get exploited) spark the same intense outrage/protests on the left as, say, corporate subsidies, billionaire loopholes, or environmental issues?

Is it seen as isolated/systemic but fixable without slashing programs?

Or more a failure of administration than the programs themselves?

Do liberals view this as worth aggressive reforms (tighter verification, cuts to risky providers) to protect social safety nets? Or is the bigger priority preserving access for those who need it, even with some waste?Thanks for thoughtful responses!

Update: I also just read that after this dude was found guilty, the judge overturned the results. Come on?!?

For me, I think it’s in the “mildly likely“ category. I do think that Republicans have likely successfully convinced Minnesotans that the fraud scandals are race related. At the same time, at least in the governor’s race, there’s always been a habit of third parties taking some of the vote away from the Republicans. That and no Minnesota governor has won three terms since the 60s so that doesn’t help.

For me, it’s ”leans R” for both houses of their legislature and “leans D“ for the governor’s office. Thoughts?

What tf is going on in Minnesota? Industrial-scale fraud is occurring in this state, and no one on Reddit seems to be paying attention. Every aspect of Minnesota's social services is being shamelessly pillaged. Feeding our Futures scandal, at least 250 million, probably 10x that number when all stones are unturned, 878 arrested so far. Housing Stabilization Services Fraud, at least 300 million pilfered, 5 arrested so far. Autism Services (EIDBI Program) Fraud, Broader Medicaid and Social Services Fraud, and now the latest child care services fraud, where millions of dollars were sent to empty storefronts posing as child care facilities. This is gross criminal negligence on the part of Minnesota's leadership. People seriously need to be imprisoned.

And by the way, the same level of corruption and scandal is being uncovered in California now. Seems to be a certain pattern forming.

Minnesota child care centers at the heart of widespread fraud allegations fueled by a viral video were operating as expected when visited by investigators, the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families said in a news release Friday.

“Children were present at all sites except for one – that site, was not yet open for families for the day when inspectors arrived,” the agency said.

The agency gathered evidence and initiated further review, noting the investigation into four centers was ongoing, the report stated.

I’ve been seeing this in the news lately, but I remain unsure if these are isolated incidents or something more systemic. This Feeding Our Future case seems to be pretty big, with what appears to be at least $250 million in fraud. Reporting describes it as one of the largest pandemic related fraud cases in the country. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-to-know-about-minnesota-fraud-allegations-as-trump-levels-attacks-on-walz/

Federal prosecutors are also pursuing multiple additional fraud investigations in Minnesota involving Medicaid and other social services programs, including autism services and housing stabilization services and daycare. Federal officials have described the scope of the problem as unusually large. https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/12/18/u-s-attorney-fraud-likely-exceeds-9-billion-in-minnesota-run-medicaid-services/ MPR News reporting on new charges: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/12/18/minnesota-fraud-new-charges-medicaid-scam https://kstp.com/tracking-your-tax-dollars/whistleblower-minnesotas-child-care-assistance-program-has-fraud-cases-dating-back-12-years/ https://m.economictimes.com/us/news/empty-daycare-centers-millions-in-public-funds-viral-video-sparks-minnesota-fraud-scrutiny/articleshow/126213876.cms

For people who follow Minnesota politics or public administration more closely: how should all of this be understood? Are these just unusually large fraud cases that happen to be concentrated in one state, or do they point to broader systemic issues? How does this compare to fraud in other states? And what should change to prevent similar problems going forward?

Tim Walz, former 2024 Democrat VP pick and governor of Minnesota, will not seek reelection due to the current welfare fraud scandal in the state. Walz criticized President Trump for politicizing the scandal in order to attack the local Somali community. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who was reelected in 2024, has privately expressed interest in entering this upcoming gubernatorial race.

This is so so sad.

I’m not arguing that fraud didn’t happen in Minnesota. It clearly did, and people involved should be and have been prosecuted

What I am pushing back on is how this story is being framed and scaled.

This feels eerily similar to the ACORN situation in 2009: a real but localized scandal was amplified into a symbolic national crisis, then used to delegitimize an entire program and justify sweeping political conclusions, like how Obama would have to resign or some other illogical fantasies that went far beyond the actual facts.

Back then, ACORN went from “some offices engaged in misconduct” to “proof that voter registration itself is corrupt.” The conservative influencers did the rest repetition, outrage, simplified villains, and zero balance. They flooded the airwaves, and now they are doing it again.

The Minnesota Medicare fraud story is following the same pattern:

• A limited number of bad actors

• Framed as evidence that Medicare itself is fundamentally broken

• Rapid rise in only conservative media and influencers (as whats left of the MSM tries to keep up)

• Emotional framing that discourages nuance or scale. How could you question something like this? As a friend told me. Its too bad not to be real, yet they have ignored or not known about any of the trump scandals from his first or second terms.

This doesn’t mean “ignore corruption.” It means don’t confuse accountability with narrative weaponization. Prosecuting fraud strengthens public programs; turning every scandal into proof the system must be dismantled weakens them.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-to-know-minnesota-fraud-scandal-more-charges-filed-trump-walz/

This story is unlikely to have much staying power or meaningful impact on national Democratic politics because the party isn’t even in a settled 2028 primary mindset yet, and there’s no clear presidential field for it to attach itself to. Unlike past scandals that stuck because they could be personalized and nationalized, this one lacks a high-profile Democratic figure who was already positioned as a frontrunner.

Tim Walz was never widely viewed as a top-tier 2028 contender, so there’s no obvious political incentive for Democrats to defend him aggressively or for opponents to keep the story alive once the outrage cycle burns out. It will be interesting to see what happens to smaller political figures in MN like Ilhan Omar or Mike Lindell but they are very niche figures and boogey men for the opposing political parties. I just don't see this landing like the right may want it to.

Absent new revelations that directly implicate senior leadership, the narrative has nowhere to go, and Walz so far appears to be weathering it by not feeding the cycle he's out there letting investigations proceed, avoiding overreaction, and staying focused on governing. This may be over by 2026 when the Russian bots go back to sleep.

Relevance: Walz was the 2024 Democratic VP nominee, a guest on EKS whom Ezra was pretty high on, and seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party.

Donald Trump and MAGA’s use of these scandals as a post-hoc justification of their aggressive immigration enforcement and xenophobia is not okay. However, whaddaboutism, deflections, and partisan reactionism does not excuse Walz (and the Minnesota DFL) for having created the conditions for, enabling, and then failing to meaningfully respond to defrauding social programs. At a minimum it’s naive executive malpractice, but until investigations are conducted which exonerate people it is not unreasonable to infer corruption played a role.

I strongly encourage people to read the article before posting. For those unaware, the Minnesota Reformer is a progressive/center-left publication that does good reporting within the state. They’ve been reporting on this issue for years and Walz (and the DFL) have acted like nothing’s wrong. Much of this reporting is linked within the piece.

Politically, this is a disaster, not just for Minnesota because this story has gained traction nationally. It undermines Ezra’s idea that democrats can run government well and successfully execute progressive programs. Additionally it gives Republicans an opportunity to trash Medicaid and drive headlines. Unfortunately Walz has been reactionary and chosen to nationalize the issue and his campaign rather than tackle this debacle responsibly.

Basically a total reddit blackout on this topic, there’s gotta be some middle ground discussion here. Is it Russian disinformation or is that just reddit cope?

I’m trying to sort through the noise regarding child care and other fraud in Minnesota.

Unfortunately I’ve had trouble finding facts. Most of what I read is either political spin, or generic stories with glossed-over data.

Is there any **evidence** that Gov Walz did anything illegal? Not spin, but evidence or even legit reasonable cause to suspect? (Or was he slow to act, or slow to publicize state actions, perhaps to protect political allies?)

If the scale of fraud is $1-6b, what proportion is that of the State’s overall programs? In other words, how big is it really? Fox News and the R candidate for governor makes it seem like the entire state is a fraud. While Walz’s press releases lean towards “it’s just a few rotten apples”.

Anyone know the facts?

Possibly one of the largest fraud cases in American history totaling BILLIONS of dollars and all appearing to be almost enabled by their own state officials.

The Nick Shirley video showed in a few hours some guy could expose what appears to be upwards of $100M in alleged fraudulent healthcare operations yet MN officials couldn’t (despite those same officials giving them billions in tax dollars)?

Where are the people who claim there shouldn’t be two tiers of justice and that nobody is above the law?

Why aren’t the locals outraged that their tax dollars are going who-knows-where while money is being allocated away from actual organizations designed to help autism support and childcare organizations?

I never was under the impression that fraud using government programs wasn’t rampant… I just never knew how easy is to get millions per year and not even try to hide it.

I absolutely loathe the idea of fraud in the sense of taking money meant for hungry kids or programs that were taking advantage of by people who were using it to just try and get rich.

I see all this stuff about how it was Walz fault and they are blaming him.

I truly think Walz is the best modern politician, probably the best in the country, and I find it hard to believe he knowingly allow fraud to happen or got any kickbacks from it or anything like people say.

Can someone give me a rundown of the fraud and if Walz was involved at all other than signing the bill that authorized funds? Thanks.

How much waste and fraud do you think is going on at the State level and the City of Seattle?