Tom Bevan and Carl Cannon, Friday on RCP’s podcast, commented on CBS’s report containing photos of extravagant spending by the defendants in a major welfare fraud case in the Minnesota Somali community. “Obviously, this is not the only case where this is happening; it’s not just Somalis doing it,” RCP co-founder Tom Bevan said. “I hope this ushers in an era where we root out fraud in these programs.” “We have a $ 39 trillion debt. If we’re just pumping money out the door and 30% of it is fraud, going to scammers, that adds up pretty darn quickly,” Bevan said. “What is particularly egregious about the Minnesota fraud is that this group of immigrants found shelter in America, and what do they do? Immediately start figuring out how to manipulate the system and scam U.S. taxpayers.” “This idea that we just print money, and the government ships out billions of dollars and has no idea where it’s going — it’s going to make fiscal conservatives out of people,” RCP Washington bureau chief Carl Cannon said. “But to have a government that is so incompetent and clueless and cavalier about taxpayer money, that these Somalis come over and just fill out these forms, and they send them millions of dollars. I mean, how is that even possible?” “I’m certainly not excusing the behavior, but you wonder the other side of the equation: why are we so incompetent?” he said.
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