Last month, the federal government’s total debt hit $40 trillion. How did this happen? The simple answer is that, every year since 2001, the federal government has spent more money than it has collected in revenue. As Figure 1 shows, using Congressional Budget...
On the evening of August 26, the Center of the American Experiment (CAE) won a hard-earned and well-deserved award from the State Policy Network (SPN), for bringing to national attention Minnesota’s fraud scandal of “Feeding Our Future”. In his acceptance...
A study by the financial website SmartAsset found that Minnesota’s largest county led America in receiving federal taxpayer money. The Center Square reported on the study last week, Hennepin County in Minnesota has received the most federal spending of any...
Thirty years ago this month, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 (PROWRA) — a law to “end welfare as we know it.” Among its biggest reforms, PROWRA transformed the Aid to Families with Dependent...
Even though it always gets first billing, the “who” remains the most elusive of the five “W’s” of journalism. At this point, the fraud story lurks around the edge of every aspect of life in Minnesota. Take, for example, this headline from Alpha News earlier...
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, ICE is still arresting people in Minnesota — but the tactics have changed. The Star Tribune reports, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] has arrested more than 900 immigrants across Minnesota since March, according...
Your correspondent was interviewed by Fox News on the subject of the continuing fraud being perpetrated against Minnesota’s social welfare programs. Here is a clip they posted to X of my interview, NO SLOWDOWN: Expert warns that Minnesota's fraud hasn't stopped...
Beloved singer Dolly Parton passed away earlier this week at 80 years old. Her legacy as country crooner may be a highlight of American culture, but her philanthropic work may prove to be more impactful. Dolly started the Imagination Library in 1995, inspired...
Yesterday, Hussein Mohamed Farah was sentenced to 20 months (1 year, 8 months) in federal prison for his role in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal. He was also ordered to repay $471,000. As I noted before, Hussein served as CEO of a local nonprofit, the New...
A recent Peggy Flanagan stump speech turned to health care costs. “My friend Tom is an ER doctor who worries he is going to kick someone into bankruptcy every time he treats someone in the ER..He’s like… ‘someone just paid $30,000 when I treated their...