Source: Reason
by Jack Nicastro
“A years-long scheme to defraud $1.5 billion from federally subsidized social services is fueling a wave of xenophobia against Minnesotans of Somali descent. The real culprit is Uncle Sam. … The real story here is not the ethnicity of those who defrauded the HSS, EIDBI, and FCPN programs, but the fact that the majority of public funding for these programs came from the federal government instead of Minnesota’s own coffers. … We should not be surprised when states are overly generous and insufficiently circumspect about handing out money to their constituents when the majority of the money isn’t coming from their own coffers, but the Treasury Department.” (12/12/25)