Minnesota doesn't need lectures on accountability from the corrupt liars in the White House.

During his State of the Union speech, President Trump said this:

When it comes to the corruption that is plundering — really, it's plundering America. There's been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer...

This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn't believe. So, tonight, although it started four months ago, I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President, J.D. Vance. We'll get it done.

And if we're able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight. It'll go very quickly. That's the kind of money you're talking about.

As he does so often, the president pulled that $19 billion number out of thin air. The U.S. Attorney who had been responsible for prosecuting fraud in Minnesota (before he recently resigned) estimated $9 billion in potential fraud. But that number is also suspect. The Minnesota Star Tribune did the legwork and documented $218 million from court records so far. 

When it comes to balancing the budget via fraud, we'd all do well to remember that Elon Musk was going to cut federal spending by $2 trillion via the elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse. His DOGE efforts actually increased the deficit by $286 billion. 

But there's another problem with Trump's statement. The federal government spends about $600 billion on Medicaid per year (the program being targeted for fraud). The federal budget deficit is currently running at about $1.9 trillion per year. So even if the entire Medicaid program were eliminated, it wouldn't come close to balancing the budget. 

The real kicker is that the president (who was convicted on 34 counts of fraud) has appointed Vice President Vance as the so-called "fraud tzar" - the same guy that admittedly lied about immigrants eating our pets. 

It didn't take Vance long to get to work. On Wednesday, he announced that the Trump administration will pause $259 million in Medicaid payments to Minnesota. The vice president said that these payments would be paused "until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that's being perpetrated against the American taxpayer."

It's really rich being lectured about obligations from an administration that is the most corrupt in this country's history with a president who has pardoned dozens of people who committed billions of dollars worth of fraud. But there you have it.

In light of that, it might be helpful to take a moment to document what Minnesota has actually done to combat fraud. Bullet points should suffice.

• The Minnesota Department of Human Services has conducted more than 3,000 investigations since 2020 and referred more than 500 cases to law enforcement.
• 94 defendants have faced criminal charges for fraud since 2021.
• Tim O'Malley was appointed as head of program integrity across state government (ie, state "fraud tzar'). He is a judge, former superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and former FBI agent.
• An outside firm was hired to audit payments to high-risk programs at the Department of Human Services and a specialized fraud-fighting law enforcement unit was created at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. 
• Payments to providers in 14 Medicaid programs were paused while systems were audited.
• Housing Stabilization Services, which used Medicaid dollars to help people find and keep housing, was discontinued.
• The day before the president's State of the Union speech, Tim O'Malley released a nine-pillar overhaul on how Minnesota prevents, detects and responds to fraud.
• State Democratic leaders have proposed a dozen anti-fraud bills this session.
• As I write, Gov. Walz is introducing his own anti-fraud legislative package.

If you got through all of that - congratulations. Gov. Walz put it best, I think.

Detecting fraud is resource intensive and time consuming — especially when it comes to the federal Medicaid programs that have a complex interplay between private insurance companies and federal, state and county governments. Is it impossible? No. We have made significant progress. We have much more to do.

The one thing that isn't going to help is to get lectures on accountability from the corrupt liars in the White House.