Trump Administration Withholding $259M In Medicaid Funds From Minnesota
While President Donald Trump said a whole lot of nothing during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, one point of note was his announcement that Vice President JD Vance would be overseeing a “war on fraud.” On Wednesday, Vance announced that the opening salvo in that war would be withholding $259 million in Medicaid payments from Minnesota.
NBC News reports that Vance was joined by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz during the announcement. “We have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligation seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money,” Vance said at an afternoon news conference.
“We will give them the money, but we’re going to hold it and only release it after they propose an act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem,” Oz added. “If Minnesota fails to clean up the systems, the state will rack up a billion dollars of deferred payments this year.” He added that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has 60 days to respond.
Walz responded to the announcement in a post on X. “This has nothing to do with fraud,” Walz wrote. “The agents Trump allegedly sent to investigate fraud are shooting protesters and arresting children. His D.O.J. is gutting the U.S. Attorney’s Office and crippling their ability to prosecute fraud. And every week, Trump pardons another fraudster.
“These cuts will be devastating for veterans, families with young kids, folks with disabilities, and working people across our state,” he added.
“He’ll get it done,” Trump said of Vance’s fraud effort in his speech. “And if we’re able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight.” The word “If” is doing some heavy lifting here. Especially considering that even if there are such high levels of fraud as the Trump administration claims, it’s not nearly increasing the deficit as much as Trump’s own policies.
Minnesota has been under the national spotlight after it was discovered that a small ring of Somali immigrants had defrauded over $1 billion of the state’s social welfare funds. No one is probably more upset about the fraud than the Somalis living in Minnesota. The actions of the 59 people convicted in these schemes have been held against the 80,000 Somalis living in Minnesota. The part that is conveniently left out is that a white woman, Aimee Bock, was the mastermind behind many of the fraud schemes in Minnesota. But hey, why hold her accountable when there’s an entire immigrant community to scapegoat?
During the news conference, Vance told a reporter that he was “quite confident” that the Trump administration has “the authority to do this.” According to the New York Times, Minnesota officials will undoubtedly challenge the withheld Medicaid funding in court, where the Trump administration hasn’t had much success in defending its efforts to withhold federal funding from states. Earlier this year, the Health and Human Services Department froze child care funds intended for Minnesota, but a federal judge struck down that effort after several states sued.
What’s really infuriating about this move is that it’s yet another instance of the Trump administration using some of the most vulnerable people as political pawns so it can look strong to its base. So far, Trump’s second term has been defined by taking a hammer to problems that require a scalpel. There is clearly a fraud issue in Minnesota, but instead of working with Walz and pooling resources to create a targeted, comprehensive plan to root it out, they’re punishing everyone who relies on Medicaid in the state.
How, exactly, does this help the people of Minnesota? Don’t worry, I have the answer: it doesn’t.
SEE ALSO:
Donald Trump Threatens Minnesota With ‘DAY OF RECKONING’
HHS Freezing Child Care Funds In Minnesota Over Fraud Claims