December 11, 2025 • 39 mins
For Hour 2 of the show Jon is joined by Dr. Oz at the top of the hour, then Elliott Engen at the bottom of the hour. Jon talks to both guest about the fraud that has taken place in Minnesota.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This always happens when it comes to really high profile guests.
I usually give it about a fifty to fifty.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Because stuff happens all the time.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hour two here on a Thursday twin Cities News Talk
AM eleven thirty and one oh three five FM, we
are expected to hear from doctor Oz. He's been demanding
that walls take aggressive action to stop the Medicaid fraud
or risk losing federal funding, and Minnesota is supposed to
be providing weekly updates on that particular issue. So we'll
(00:46):
await his phone call and hopefully get a chance to
find out just how those updates are going. In the meantime,
I do have other things to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I am always prepared in the off chance that my
guests don't arrive.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I actually got a fist punk from Devin and the
Master Control, both next door.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I think that's the most animated you've ever been. I
know you're a big sports guy. I get it all right,
let's go here.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Speaking of fraud, we're gonna talk more about fraud. Apparently
Representative elliot Ing and also running for state Auditor, has
some new fraud to detail with us on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So I'm very much looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I found out by the way, we got to talk
to Elliott about this. But regarding paid family medical leave,
like you don't even have to be working to get it.
So there's a scenario within paid family medical leave wherein say,
if you're a teacher and you want to take the
paid family medical leave time off if you time it.
(01:46):
So let me back up really quick. So a teacher
works during the school year, they get paid their salary,
and then they have time off during the summer. Now
there's other responsibilities, but you have a chunk of time
off during the summer, but you're still you're making money,
you know, based off your total salary for the year. Right, Okay,
So with paid family medical leave, if you time it,
you come up with it with whatever excuse you need
to take care of your neighbor's dog, whatever, because it's
(02:09):
not going to be turned down. The first person that
gets turned down by their employer over paid family medical
leave is going to end up in some sort of
litigation lawsuit being used. If they were to go and
time it out, they could actually take the paid family
medical time leave off over the summer and get paid
that's above what they're already getting paid. So now they
(02:31):
have time off they would have had already. They'll still
take that time off, but now they're going to go
and get paid for it. The other question I have too,
is that if I get twenty weeks paid medical leave
and I already get like like like three weeks vacation,
does that mean that I could actually go and take
paid family medical leave for twenty weeks and then take
(02:51):
the three weeks vacation on top of that, so I
can get a total of twenty three weeks.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Off, like I don't even have to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I would never do that because I would never want
to put my employer in that position.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I like what I do, all right. Very pleased to
welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Centers for Medicine and Medicaid Services Administrator doctor mem and
Oz you know him is doctor Oz. It's a pleasure
to speak with you, sir. Thank you so much for
joining the show this morning.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Great honor. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
And it's unfortunately under circumstances there are uh that are
tough ones to stomach. And this is I believe and
the same as staff who've been here for you. These
are the career people have been here for decades say
they've never seen anything like the fraud that's going on
right now in Minnesota that we think is going to
amount to over a billion.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Dollars and it's a dere election to duty.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's frustrating, and I'd love to be able to speak
with you a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
It's not a lighthearted topic.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
We've got lots of other things we can talk about
that are great news, but this is really bad.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
No, it is bad, and it's it's interesting, doctor Oz,
because from individuals, you know, from my position, you know,
having almost a decade's worth of radio time here in Minnesota,
people that follow politics, like, we've known about this for
a long time, and you know, we've been shocked and
appalled at the level of fraud that's been exposed here locally,
(04:10):
and it just simply did not gain any national attention.
And there was a lot of us that believed that
if this did get national attention, then we could actually
go and do something about it, because nothing's been done
about it at the state level. So it's really interesting
from like my perspective to hear your perspective on it.
Finding this out because we've been seeing this now for
(04:32):
a long long time, and we're just very thankful, even
though it's an incredibly difficult situation that something is actually
being done. I know that you were looking through CMS
to get weekly updates from the Walls Administration about efforts
to rein in this fraud. Has the Walls administration, has government?
Has a Governor Tim Wall's been complying with those requests.
(04:55):
Where do things stand now regarding the federal investigations into
what's been happening here in Minnesota, Well, the governor has.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Not responded directly, but the Health Department of Unnesota has
and we are starting our weekly reviews of the audit
in a week. And this is the first step because
in addition to having weekly audits so we know what's
going on, we want them to give us a corrective
action plan by the end of this month, because it's
not just about tracking how bad it is now, but
(05:23):
where's it going and what are you going to do
about this?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Because these are by.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
By the way, by the end of January, if they
have not been able to take meaningful action, we're going
to shut down funding to these fourteen suspect programs that
puts a lot of people at risk. And this is
the point I really wanted to make to anyone listening.
This is not just about stamping out waste, fraud and abuse.
That's critical, But when you don't do it, the people
who pay the price are the folks, the voterable people
(05:49):
from these programs were designed. So you have an autism
program now, and I'm sure you've reported on this. I
summarized it in the post I did last week. It
was supposed to be a three million dollar program. It's
been over four hundred million dollars.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Now how do you do that?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
You do it by getting people to lie about whether
their children have autism.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You get it by having.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Scoundrels pay money bidding wars to get these kids into
their their there they're kiddy because they can make so
much money off them. But the real per party is
not just the taxpayer, it's the parents whose kids really
have autism.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
What happens to them when I've got to shut the.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Whole program down because I can't tell good from bad?
How do you separate the week from the chaff? When
you've got so much corruption, and almost all of it
seems to be in areas where the most vulnerable population
is a's just the homeless substance use disorder.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I mean, who wants to.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Take away homes from people in Minnesota in the freezing cold. Well,
if you go to take a program from a million
dollars or two million dollars to one hundred million dollars,
it's not sustainable. And we're going to stick the Minnesota
taxpayer with the bill because right now they're Minnesota. I
believe leadership allowed this to go on because it wasn't
coming out of pockets taxpayers in Texas, in Florida, and
(07:02):
New York, California, they were.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Paying the bill.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Once we say we're done, not only is there a
moratorium of new people entering it, but we're not going
to pay for the program at all. That's what we
did with the housing program. If you're if you're homeless
at a hospital in Minnesota, need to go to a
place to stay together out of the hospital, we're not
paying for anymore.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
It's on you.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
So all these great things that were being tried by
folks who are progressive and thoughtful and trying to make
new and better ways work, it doesn't happen. But let
me quote someone that you'll know well, Hubant Humphrey. I
work in the Humphrey Building in Washington. The atrium the
entryway of the building is a beautiful quote from your
past senator and it's and vice president, and it says,
(07:41):
the moral obligation of government is to take care of
those at the dawn of life. Those are the children,
those are the twilight of life, the seniors, and those
who are living in the shadows. That's who are supposed
to benefit from these programs when you allow people to steal,
so millions are not when you let people steal from
these programs, are the people you're hurting. It never crossed
(08:01):
anyone's mind sixty years ago when Medicaid medicare created that
scoundrels would infiltrate. But I'm seeing this now across the country.
It's worse in Minnesota than in a lot of places
because it's in a duty by your governor's administration, and
there wasn't anybody really going after what seems to have
been known by everyone in Minnesota but no one outside
(08:22):
the state. But we have to be aggressive across the
country on these issues.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Talking with doctor Oz again, a CMS administrator, you mentioned
the withholding of the funding.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
What else can be.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Done at the federal level, regarding the specific fraud here
in Minnesota, I think, you know, I think most of
us would like to see this handled at the local level.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You know, at the state level. This is where it's
taking place.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Even though you mentioned the federal dollar aspect of this,
you know, how much power does the federal government have.
Does your medicare and medicaid services have to tackle this?
Is there more that you can do, even beyond just
the withholding of funds if this doesn't comply with your demands,
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
I mean, we have an Office of inspect to General.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I've been meeting with them.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
They are actively engaged looking at criminal conduct.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
People are going to be in trouble. But here's a problem.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
I'm going to share with you openly. When you commit
a bank robbery, you go to jail for a long time,
and maybe you steal.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
You know, twenty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
You can come into medicator Medicare steal millions of dollars,
Your jail sentence is going to be eighteen months, right.
So that's a good deal for a lot of people.
And I think that's one serious problem with white collar crime,
when you steal much of that magnitude from the taxpayers.
You have got to go away for a while. The
penalties have to match the crime. I also believe that
(09:44):
I'm that we can focus on the criminals and putting
them in jail, and I want to do that. But
my primary responsibility is protect you and your listeners, the
taxpayers of America. I don't want the money going out
the door, because once it goes out the door, it disappears.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I'll give you a couple of examples.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
We have five times more durable medical equipment suppliers in
South Florida than McDonald's.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Come on, are you serious? We think the.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Cuban government's involved. These folks seem to flee there after
they get indicted, and so when we indict people in Minnesota,
we don't want them running to other countries. I don't
want them going back to Somalia. I want them staying
right there in Minnesota so they can deal with these issues.
We've got criminal conduct. We have a big multinational mafia
organization that we shut down fifteen billion dollars of attempt
(10:28):
at theft. All the perpetrators fled to Russia and the
Baltic States. So these people aren't the Americans, but they
see us as having a social network that we treasure
and generally don't try to take advantage of. But they
don't care. They're just stealing money from America. It doesn't
matter that they're taking it from our most vulnerable. So
we have got to weaponize our resistance to these crowds.
(10:49):
Just like what happened with the weaponization of the fraud
it stulf. What happened in Minnesota was many of these
folks in the Simonian community and some others, but most
of the indictments seem.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
To be in the Surmarian community. They realized during.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
COVID that they are these really loosely created programs. Again,
they seem like they're nice, they seem like they're kind,
they're basically towing money at issues. They took advantage of it.
They realized nobody was watching the till, so they went
back over and over again and they created more frauds
in autism services and transportation services and housing services. And
of course, once they realized that he could get away
(11:24):
with it, they weaponized it.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
We have to respond in kind well.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Governor Tim Wall says that he welcomes, you know, a
federal investigation into what's going on, so you know, I
imagine that he should be more than willing to hand
over all the information that CMS and you, doctor Oz
are demanding. My expectations are low that he's going to
do that, but that's what he did say publicly, so
one would think that he would be complying with what
it is that you are looking for regarding these matters.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Well, I'm glad he's staying the right message. I'm hoping
it feels the same way when we begin to discover
what's happening.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
When did you first find out? I mean, when was
this brought to your attention this year? I'm just I'm
curious how that came about when you guys started to investigate.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
What was going on.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
So, the state of Minnesota had actually started an investigation
in twenty twenty four, again untimely because the governor was
running for vice president, but there was evidence at that
point and the state said, well, we're going to run
an investigation using outside contractors. They told us they could
handle it, and at the last week of August they
(12:29):
approached our team at a meeting. You know, they had
conferences for folks who are working in health services, who
are generally good people, by the way, and they told
us in an informal way, Listen, we got a problem.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
You know, we thought we could handle this. We can't.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
And so that sort of set off a cascade of
events that have culminated. And again the more it's like,
I hate the use surgeries of metaphor, but I am
a surgeon. You know, when you started to breed the abscess,
you don't often know how deep it goes. But the
more we started over the last month to look into
this problem, the more we realized this is catastrophic. And
it's not just in Minnesota. There's a report yesterday for Maine,
(13:04):
not much smaller than scope so far, but again, we
don't know do we begin to investigate it. But at
least the good news is we have the right people
in the room talking about what needs to happen and
investigating it and putting some numbers behind these criminal activities.
And we have got the OIG and FBI. I've talked
to Cash Totel about this and in Pambondi as well,
that everybody is riled up about this. Again, it's not
(13:28):
just the money. The money's big, it's terrible, but it's
the people you're hurting. Again, I'm going to bring this
this stuff.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
In the light.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
If you cannot get a patient discharge from a hospital
in Minnesota because there's no housing, be able to just
sit there for months running up massive tallies. We want
these programs to exist, but not this way. And when
I find this much fraud, you've got to burn the
whole village down. You've got to shut it all down,
and that's not a good way to run programs. You
want to be more targeted in your efforts.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
CMS Administrator, Doctor memment Oz, Doctor Oz, it's a pleasure
to speak with you, and I hope that after the
first of the year, when we were awaiting the further
audit relating to just how big all the fraud is,
there's still a big question mark on that, but you're right,
it's more than likely going to be into the billions
of dollars. And I hope that we have an opportunity
to speak after the first of the year to find
out how your continued investigations are going and whether or
(14:17):
not the state is complying. But I thank you so
much for the work that you're doing in your time
on the show this morning.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It's greatly appreciated.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Well God bless you. We've got boots on the ground there.
Now I'll have lots to talk about and I look
forward to coming back and visiting with you.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Now, those boots on the ground are welcome to come
on by the studio anytime, sir. So thank you, thank
you so much for joining us this morning. All right,
coming up, If taxpayers knew how bad it was, they
would be outraged. County worker offers an inside look at
the fraud story from Alpha News.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I'll share with you some details.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I believe I actually have audio of that main fraud
that doctor Oz was talking about that I can share
as well. And representative at Elliott Ingen, also running for
state Auditor, will be joining us in studio just after
seven thirty and we'll get to your talkbacks from the
iHeartRadio app as are brought to you by Lyndahl Realty.
They're coming up on Twin City's News Talk Am eleven
thirty and one oh three five FM.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Hey John, I had a work meeting from six to
seven this morning, so I missed the first hour.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Is there anywherey I can go to find the recording
of that hour?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Thank you. I have a great day.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Now it's time to make up for some missed talkbacks,
have a good day, Hans.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I feel like you're I feel like you're doing that
just to provide me the opportunity to say, go to
the iHeartRadio app and download the podcast.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Because you're listening on the iHeartRadio app. But yes, there is.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You can always get caught up on the podcast if
you missed any portion of the show by simply going
to the iHeartRadio app and.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That the podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
As a matter of fact, that's what I had Devin
do this morning in the Master Control booth. I had
him pull one of the answers to a question yesterday
from gubernatorial candidate Attorney Chris Maddele regarding what Republicans are
or are not doing relating to fraud. So when Representative
Elliott Ingen, who by the way, is downstairs waiting to
(16:13):
come on up when he joins us in the studio
in the next segment, we'll ask him about that, I'm
going to replace some of Mattel's answer and we'll get
the answer from Elliott Ingen, also running for auditor, so
he'll be in studio with us here just a moment,
But thank you so much for the top back brought
to you by and all realty, the.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
People that are committing the fraud and the embstment of
government dollars through social programs that are largely pushed by
Democrats seem to be more concerned about how the Democrat
Party or the government apparatus is going to treat them
than they are about the legal consequences of their actions.
So we really need to start seeing some people that
are actually facing legal consequences on a large scale.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I think that would be one.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
Rate start in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well, well, certainly we're certainly starting to see that. As always,
these things take time and it doesn't move as fast
as all of us would like. I had a talkback
that rolled in earlier that I didn't bother wasting airtime on,
but basically griping over why is it walls locked up yet? Well,
because there hasn't been any evidence of criminal wrong dooing
(17:23):
to go and do that. No, we can't just start
arresting people over our assumptions, even if our assumptions turn
out to be correct, and just that's not how things work.
So from Alphanews, I'm going to bring you a portion
of this. It needs we need some time to breathe
on this particular story. So again, there's a just a
lot going on, So let me give you just the
(17:44):
bullet points on this. A Minnesota welfare worker says the
state's public benefit system is riddled with loopholes that enable
large scale fraud, and frontline staff are often afraid to
question suspicious cases for fear of being label as a racist.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
The workers said.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
They came forward because they believe Minnesotan's are unaware of
the scale and the structure of the problem. Here's one,
here's one issue on this, and then we'll we'll put
a pin in this and we will return to it.
But one of the largest loopholes that we're dealing with
right now, according to this whistleblower, involves religious only marriages.
I had not heard about this until I found this
(18:25):
story from Alpheus. They're common among East African households that
they work with. Couples who are married only through a
religious ceremony are treated in the system as unmarried parents.
Even when they live together and share children. They will say, yes,
we're married, but only religiously. In the system, that means
(18:45):
that they're coded as unmarried.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So why does this matter?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Well, the mother claims all the children and the father's
income is entirely excluded, so they get the benefits of
a single parent household while living together as a two
parent family. The worker said they have yet to see
the Somali marriage that is court documented. In cases that
they process, it changes everything in the eligibility calculation. The
(19:13):
lower the income, the more generous the benefits. When we
talk about how we've only hit the tip of the
iceberg relating to the fraud, it's items like this that
we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
At this point.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
The question needs to be asked, what program right now
wherein there are social benefits available through taxpayer dollars medicaid funding,
which program isn't fraudulent.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
That's the way that we need to start examining this.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And I'm also convinced that what we're going to see next,
the next phase of the conversation that we're talking about,
is going to be this nationwide exposure of systemic fraud,
specifically in the Democrat Party, as we talked about with
doctor Oz at the top of the hour, he said,
you know, in Maine there was a new instance where
(20:02):
it popped up. I had conversations with individuals out of Colorado,
and by the way, I got that wrong. Earlier, I
was talking with Sarah westall this week. She's actually here
in the Twin Cities. The conversation I was referring to
was Mandy Connell out of out of Denver, Colorado earlier
when I had mentioned the situation that they were dealing
with regarding Venezuelan immigrants.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
But let me share this story here and then we'll have.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Representative Elli and Ingen join us in studio here on
Twin Cities News Talk. This is a Democrat representative out
of Georgia who was indicted this week.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
On pandemic fraud.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Again, this is going to be the next big phase
exposure of the systemic fraud taking place across the country
by those on the left. This is the story here
from Fox News.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Dded for fraud, we're learning more about this Georgia lawmaker.
She is accused of illegally colecting pandemic benefits. And you're
taking a look at Sharon Henderson. Federal investigators arrested her today.
They say she collected nearly eighteen thousand dollars in unemployment
benefits using false information. Federal prosecutors say this happened while
(21:14):
Henderson was a political candidate and later while serving in office.
They believe she first applied for pandemic unemployment benefits in
June twenty twenty, at the time, she was running for
a state House seat, and claimed she was unemployed because
Henry County schools had closed. Prosecutors say that information was false.
They say she'd not worked for the school system since
(21:35):
briefly serving as a substitute teacher in twenty eighteen, and
that her employment agreement specifically said substitutes were not eligible
for unemployment pay now. According to this indictment, Henderson continued
certifying weekly benefits and to make twenty twenty one, including
eight filings made after she was sworn into office as
a state representative for District one thirteen. During those filings,
(21:59):
officials say she repat he italy claims she was unable
to work because of pandemic related issues, but investigators say
those statements allowed her to receive seventeen eight hundred dollars
eight hundred and eleven dollars in benefits she was not
entitled too. Now, she is expected to plead not guilty
when she appears in federal court today. Will continue to
(22:19):
keep you updated on this story.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
The story from Rosall Fox News.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You know, it's interesting because people always wonder like how
certain representatives, you know, Johan Omar, how they have all
of this money even though they have a very small salary.
At least in this case, we know for this woman
it was actually fraudulent. Puts a big question mark on
a lot of other people.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Though.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Representative Ellie at Ingen, also running for an auditor here
in Minnesota, joins me and Studio next here on Twin
City's News Talk on Carpet's Plus poem of the Next
Day Install Studios. You're listening to iHeartRadio AM eleven thirty
and FM one oh three point five.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
This is the Twin Cities news talk station.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Almost should have been recording the conversation I was having
off the air with Representative Elliott Ingen and also running
for state auditor here on Twin Cities News Talking AM
eleven thirty one oh three five FM. My name is
John Justice, and I'm glad you're with the show from
the six five to one Carpet Plus Next Day Install Studios.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Good morning, Elliott, how are we doing? Nice to see again? Boy?
What a world man?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Oh my gosh, what kind of impact just out of
the gate, What kind of impact Have you thought much
about when the legislature reconvenes next year, what kind of
impact all this net? Well, let me just ask you,
do you think all of this national attention on these
issues that we just had doctor oz on the on
(23:46):
the phone at the top of the hour, and the
investigations that CMS is doing into Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
You know, I reported this morning.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
That DHS has arrested some four hundred people and these
are individuals here illegally that have also committed under So
what is your anticipation in the legislature reconvenes what in February?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Right, Yep, it's coming up.
Speaker 7 (24:06):
We have a bunch of bills already sitting on my
desk ready to go that would tackle a lot of
these issues. But I think Democrats are faced with kind
of a weird, a weird option of actually pretend to
do something about it and you know, give the public
the notion that they actually care about fraud or they
actually care about our public programs that are completely being
just ripped off every day, or do they just try to,
(24:30):
you know, character assassinate Republicans and continue with the look,
you're being racist against them, allies, and we're going to
talk more about how you're trying to take away rights
for Lgbtquia folks. It's like they always try to throw
in some sort of a distraction. So I don't know
what they're gonna end up doing with that, but we're
gonna be hard on the paint that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Well, Trump's comments that he's made, regardless of how anybody
feels about him, there's a couple of different ways you
can look at him, you know, with his painting with
a broad brunch. The entire Somali community. Democrats have certainly
lashed onto that, and that's not a huge that's not
a huge surprise because he is he is painting with
the broadbrush, you know, to your point, that's what they've
(25:11):
been solely focused on. You had Governor Tim Walls in
Seattle as he bails you know, out of the states
in the middle of Winboro. He always does international taciti.
I said, less there's a crisis, he runs one or
two things. He was either going to go mediasylent or
he was going to bail out. He was going to
leave the state, and sure enough he left the state.
So he talks about him, you know, Trump calling him
the r word. He talks about the comments that Trump
(25:33):
has made about the Somali community. Of course he avoids
all of the reasons why those comments are being made.
You know, do you think that's going to derail efforts,
you know, heading into the legislative sasion.
Speaker 7 (25:44):
I think Tim Walls is so narcissistic and egotistical that
he always wants to talk about the rhetoric rather than
the policy. You know, he doesn't actually want to talk
about how he has overseen, enabled, and incentivized all of
this fraud. And he's not going to do a single
damn thing about that. But he'll go up on stage
all day and say, look, he's demonizing people with disabilities,
(26:05):
he's demonizing different communities.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
It's like, come on, just do your damn job. So
I got a couple of things that I want to
do with you this morning. We had attorney and gubernatorial
candidate Chris Maddele on the show yesterday.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Listen to that.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
He had some rather you know, pointed remarks regarding what
you know, GOP lawmakers, you know, yourself included.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I agree with him, haven't done a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So we're gonna what I'm gonna do here coming up
in just a moment. I'm gonna replay his answer to
the question regarding what Republicans should be doing in his
opinion that I want to get your.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Thoughts on it.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, before we do, I know that you had mentioned
so I had talked a moment ago, and I'm going
to get into this a little bit later on Alpha
News has a story of a Minnesota welfare worker. I'm
talking about the state public benefits system riddled with loopholes,
including one I had never heard of before, Elliott, wherein
couples who are married only through religious ceremonies are treated
(26:57):
in the system as unmarried. So this is common within
East African households. I'd never heard of this before, buried
by religious means only.
Speaker 7 (27:08):
Had you heard of this price, Yeah, I have, because
then it just allows for more funding from Medicaid dollars
to flow for single parents.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
What does that mean? What does that mean in religions?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I mean, but is there no formal ceremony in which
they're declared legally married?
Speaker 7 (27:22):
That's correct, and then there's no governmental paper within the
state of Minnesota that says that they are, So.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Can anybody do that?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So if somebody is if if like a religious exemption. Okay,
that's that's what they're claiming. I have to throw Devon
into this because I have no idea what his background.
But let's say Devon was dating somebody, they were living together,
and he went and was looking for services like this.
Could he go and say that we're married religiously? Would
he have to provide evidence of that?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (27:45):
I don't know what you would have to provide. That's
actually a good question, Devin. You know, I don't think.
I don't know, but I am married. So okay, let's
hope I don't.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Have to do.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I had no idea. This is how little Devin and
I talked to it. I had no idea you were married.
I had no clue. Good for you, Devin.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So again, I had never heard of this before. Is
there a way to go and close this loopholes? Is
something that needs to be identified.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
And looked at.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
This is one of so many loopholes. Oh my gosh,
I mean the fraud that we're about to uh on.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
This is my next question because I know you have
something else beyond this as well. So this is something
that needs to be looked at before we get to
Mattle's question. Let's get to The main reason why we
were going to have you on this morning is that
there's been new fraud that's been uncovered that day that's
not been.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Talked about yet. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
So, if you guys remember back, Tim Walls all of
a sudden decided that he wanted to get serious about
fraud and I put air quotes around that because it's
nothing other than him trying to save his own electoral hide,
seeing this as an electoral risk. He paused for ninety
days fourteen different programs within DHS that deal with Medicaid dollars,
and in those audits that he was going to be
(28:58):
performing during those ninety days, they contracted DHS did with
Optum Services, which is owned by United Health Group. Okay,
so I know it's a lot to follow right now,
but United Health Group is not statutorily allowed to be
overseeing Medicaid management dollars right now because they've engaged in
conflicts of interest in the past and agree just billing practices.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
So it was so odd to see that they.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
Were given a two point three million dollar contract to
quote unquote find the fraud and figure out all the loopholes,
and then turns out, well, why did they get that contract.
George McNulty, who works within DHS and authorizes that contract.
That grant also happened to work for Optum for United
Health Group. So the conflicts of interest even extend into
(29:45):
them pretending to care about fraud. This is so convoluted,
and how these people sleep at night, it's it's disgusting.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
So let's back up. Let's back up, because this just happened. Yeah,
this just happened.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
So you had Governor Chim Walls, he had halted Was
this the disability waivers issue?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Is this what you're referring to?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Is there a fourteen different programs, right, and then the
pause and DHS funding that you're mentioning now, is that
the disability waivers are referring to it.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So that is the disability waivers.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Okay, because I want to get back to that in
just a moment because he last, So let me go
here just briefly, and we're going to try to navigate
all of this because I'm trying to make sense of
it as well, because it's all really fresh. Because again,
we had just talked about this last week. So a
year ago, on December fourth, Governor Tim Wallas had held
a press conference wherein he talked about how the eighteen
(30:37):
billion dollars surplus was gone yep, and the state was
now looking at a historic deficit.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Right.
Speaker 7 (30:44):
Well, he painted a rosy picture, but yeah, we saw
the numbers on the paper.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
In that press conference he said part of the reason
why was because of the funding through the disability waivers yep.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Okay, so he knew of it. That was a year ago.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
So first off, how much did those disability waivers impact
the reduction of our surplus? Because that was that was
the takeaway that I covered last week on.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
The show, was do we now have a means or.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
A place where we can look and go okay, fraud
may have been taking place within DHS and these disability waivers,
and that might have been what drew down the majority
of the of the surplus.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
You are going to you're gonna freak out when you
hear this number. So there are three hundred and six
thousand total number of medicaid providers in the state of Minnesota.
There's twenty point nine billion that we're paid to those
providers in twenty twenty four. How much twenty point nine billion? Okay,
(31:49):
So when we're talking about one billion in fraud or
two billion, even eight billion. I mean that's like, you know,
the most high number that Republicans tend to throw around, Well,
it could be closer to fourteen fifteen billion dollars. And
this is state and federal dollars. That DHS is is
just trying to mix around numbers and fudge with statistics
(32:10):
to make it seem like everything's unky.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Doory, and just so I can try to make this
palatable for people to understand in case people if somebody
isn't following. Let's say you've got two water tanks. The
water tank on the left is the surplus and it's
filled with water. The one on the right is in
this case like disability waivers and the funding that you're mentioning.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
So essentially, you.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Got twenty point nine billion dollars that's needed. You would
drain the water tank of the surplus and order to
fill up the tank that's required for the funding for
the for the disability waivers.
Speaker 7 (32:44):
Right, But you'd first wonder why in the heck you
need twenty point nine billion dollars in the first place, right, Yeah,
I haven't got into that, right, Right, So there's such
a drastic increase, there's a seven hundred percent increase in
housing stabilization service providers. It went from a six million
dollar program to a three hundred million dollar program in
the span.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Of three years.
Speaker 7 (33:01):
Why because fraudsters are recognizing that Minnesota is right for
the picking and every single time that there's a compassionate program,
they use that as a guys for their corruption. They
come in, they start up a nonprofit, they go to
the legislature and say, if you don't give us this money,
then you're not compassionate and you're not nice. And then
the legislature forks it over and then those same fraudsters
turn around and then cut a campaign check to Democrats.
(33:23):
It's a rinseasher, repeat cycle. And this is all incentivized
enabled and Democrats have known about this.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Okay, So getting back to DHS and what you mentioned
a moment ago with with optim let's get back to that.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Yeah, so you have that.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Last year Walls talks about identifying that the disability waiver increased.
They didn't expect it could have contributed to drawing down
the surplus. Again, that was last year, and then just
over the course of the past few weeks there's concern
of fraud within the disability waivers, and so he says
we are going to put a pause on funding starting
(33:58):
January first to those programs because of the concern of
fraud yep. And then through that Optum is hired to
do the.
Speaker 7 (34:07):
Audit, to do the audit, and they themselves are not
even eligible to do so because they've engaged in fraud.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
In the past.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
And on top of that, there's a conflict of events.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
You have the conflict of interest within DHS because of
the individual within DHS who was tied to Optum right.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Well, and he's not the only one that's done this.
Speaker 7 (34:26):
I mean, their commissioner actually proved thirty million dollars in
grants to her own consulting.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Agency in the past.
Speaker 7 (34:34):
And this is all stuff that we're going to be
on earthing when we start up our thirty fraud sites
in thirty days tour. But it is so disgusting it
would make the mafia blush what's going on within our
state agencies.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
So what do you think the hope, I mean, what
is the hope here in your mind? I mean, I
know we're speculating, right, we don't have evidence of this.
You certainly have a conflict of interest in terms of
optum going and as you said, they well, if they're
not even allowed, they shouldn't even be performing the audit.
I mean, why are they Why can it not be.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Stopped rulemaking authority? I mean DHS is just acting on
their own behalf. And what's so disgusting too, is this
was probably a backdoor deal that Tim Wall's also okayed.
I mean, United Health is the largest employer here in
the state. Democrats are in bed with big government and
big business, and this was a payof to both of them.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
On first blush, it would it would appear like as
you tell the story, as we work through it and
what's going on, is it just to me like it
seems to me that they've really set up a perfect,
perfect scenario to simply continue to muddy the issue.
Speaker 7 (35:37):
Yeah, if they can make it more confusing and convoluted
for people to understand, eventually people just kind of tune out,
and I think feeding our future. While it's obviously something
that needs to be talked about, it was talked about
so much that it almost disenfranchised and made people not
really understand how bad the fraud is in other places too.
(35:57):
Right when we're talking potentially fifteen billion dollars in fraud.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
I mean, think about that. Think about that.
Speaker 7 (36:05):
And this is all Democrat enabled so that they can
feeded their own coffers and they could have more people
reliant on the system also that they.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Can get more votes well.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
And what's frightening about all of it is we were
talking about this off the air, and we'll hold you
over for a bit. We got still got a lot
to get into here, but we were talking about this
on the air, and again I mentioned it with doctor
Oz at the top of the hour, and I have
with most of the people that I've spoken outside of
Minnesota in that we certainly haven't been complacent about the fraud.
(36:36):
Now we've talked about it, it's attempted to be addressed
at the legislative level. You have had local media do
coverage on these stories, but there's never any typical follow
up like what we're seeing now on the national level
of the outrage. And you can hear it this morning
in doctor Oz and is in the comments that he made.
(36:58):
You know, the outrage that seeing from outside of Minnesota
as they see what's going on that should have happened
here and it didn't. When you had coverage of these
stories via these news outlets. They did do for the
most part their due diligence as the exposure of the
fraud became relevant. But then when the voices of opposition
(37:21):
smoke up to talk about how bad this was, I mean,
those were mostly silent, and so you never had that
court of public opinion, you know, MINSLA was never on
the national schedule generation that should have happened here in
it and it didn't.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
But now but now we are we can thank Tim
Walls for that.
Speaker 7 (37:38):
I mean, being who he is, I think he's really
put a magnifying glass on himself and how he governs.
And that's why all of this is coming to fruition now,
even though we've been yelling about it for a long time.
But I know we need to listen to Chris Maddel's clip.
But I do believe that there's been a lot of
Republicans who kind of sit on their hands and they
wait for the news to be reported and then they
just simply respond to it. The very reactive in trying
(38:01):
to unearth this fraud and actually tell the public what's
going on, and that laziness has allowed us to get
here as well.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Before we take take a break, let me ask you
one question and then we'll and then when we come
back after the top, we'll get to uh, we'll get
to Chris Maddle's comment from yesterday, and we'll get your
we'll get your thoughts on. If you have any questions
for Representative Elliott Ingen, feel free to leave us a
talk back on the iHeartRadio apples are brought to you
by Lindahl Realty. But with regard to what you mentioned
this morning, the conflict of interest within DHS optum doing
(38:32):
the investigation into whether or not fraud was occurring, what
will be done, what needs to be done regarding that
particular issue that you announced this morning Here on there.
Speaker 7 (38:42):
Are conflict of interest statutes and they come with criminal penalties,
and if they're not pursued, we need to make it
a politically disadvantageous act for Keith Ellison to not go
after these bad actors, right, And I think as we're
running for state auditor, we're trying to demonstrate that if
you expose it so large and the public really understands
(39:03):
what's going on and how egregious this is. Any Democrat
that acts to protect the fraudsters or to enable the
broken system to continue serving itself. They're going to be
they're gonna be chopped liver. They're gonna lose because people
understand the truth now, and that's what we're trying to
do with this. So we need to expose it first,
and then we need to make sure that we press
the Attorney General to actually act all out.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Holding my breath, we'll get to your comments. Coming up.
We'll talk more with running for
Speaker 1 (39:29):
State auditor, but current Representative Elliott Ingen more with him next,
and of course you in the iHeartRadio app here on
Twin City's news talk about AM eleven thirty and one
oh three five FM
This always happens when it comes to really high profile guests.
I usually give it about a fifty to fifty.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Because stuff happens all the time.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hour two here on a Thursday twin Cities News Talk
AM eleven thirty and one oh three five FM, we
are expected to hear from doctor Oz. He's been demanding
that walls take aggressive action to stop the Medicaid fraud
or risk losing federal funding, and Minnesota is supposed to
be providing weekly updates on that particular issue. So we'll
(00:46):
await his phone call and hopefully get a chance to
find out just how those updates are going. In the meantime,
I do have other things to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I am always prepared in the off chance that my
guests don't arrive.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I actually got a fist punk from Devin and the
Master Control, both next door.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I think that's the most animated you've ever been. I
know you're a big sports guy. I get it all right,
let's go here.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Speaking of fraud, we're gonna talk more about fraud. Apparently
Representative elliot Ing and also running for state Auditor, has
some new fraud to detail with us on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So I'm very much looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I found out by the way, we got to talk
to Elliott about this. But regarding paid family medical leave,
like you don't even have to be working to get it.
So there's a scenario within paid family medical leave wherein say,
if you're a teacher and you want to take the
paid family medical leave time off if you time it.
(01:46):
So let me back up really quick. So a teacher
works during the school year, they get paid their salary,
and then they have time off during the summer. Now
there's other responsibilities, but you have a chunk of time
off during the summer, but you're still you're making money,
you know, based off your total salary for the year. Right, Okay,
So with paid family medical leave, if you time it,
you come up with it with whatever excuse you need
to take care of your neighbor's dog, whatever, because it's
(02:09):
not going to be turned down. The first person that
gets turned down by their employer over paid family medical
leave is going to end up in some sort of
litigation lawsuit being used. If they were to go and
time it out, they could actually take the paid family
medical time leave off over the summer and get paid
that's above what they're already getting paid. So now they
(02:31):
have time off they would have had already. They'll still
take that time off, but now they're going to go
and get paid for it. The other question I have too,
is that if I get twenty weeks paid medical leave
and I already get like like like three weeks vacation,
does that mean that I could actually go and take
paid family medical leave for twenty weeks and then take
(02:51):
the three weeks vacation on top of that, so I
can get a total of twenty three weeks.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Off, like I don't even have to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I would never do that because I would never want
to put my employer in that position.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I like what I do, all right. Very pleased to
welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Centers for Medicine and Medicaid Services Administrator doctor mem and
Oz you know him is doctor Oz. It's a pleasure
to speak with you, sir. Thank you so much for
joining the show this morning.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Great honor. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
And it's unfortunately under circumstances there are uh that are
tough ones to stomach. And this is I believe and
the same as staff who've been here for you. These
are the career people have been here for decades say
they've never seen anything like the fraud that's going on
right now in Minnesota that we think is going to
amount to over a billion.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Dollars and it's a dere election to duty.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's frustrating, and I'd love to be able to speak
with you a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
It's not a lighthearted topic.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
We've got lots of other things we can talk about
that are great news, but this is really bad.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
No, it is bad, and it's it's interesting, doctor Oz,
because from individuals, you know, from my position, you know,
having almost a decade's worth of radio time here in Minnesota,
people that follow politics, like, we've known about this for
a long time, and you know, we've been shocked and
appalled at the level of fraud that's been exposed here locally,
(04:10):
and it just simply did not gain any national attention.
And there was a lot of us that believed that
if this did get national attention, then we could actually
go and do something about it, because nothing's been done
about it at the state level. So it's really interesting
from like my perspective to hear your perspective on it.
Finding this out because we've been seeing this now for
(04:32):
a long long time, and we're just very thankful, even
though it's an incredibly difficult situation that something is actually
being done. I know that you were looking through CMS
to get weekly updates from the Walls Administration about efforts
to rein in this fraud. Has the Walls administration, has government?
Has a Governor Tim Wall's been complying with those requests.
(04:55):
Where do things stand now regarding the federal investigations into
what's been happening here in Minnesota, Well, the governor has.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Not responded directly, but the Health Department of Unnesota has
and we are starting our weekly reviews of the audit
in a week. And this is the first step because
in addition to having weekly audits so we know what's
going on, we want them to give us a corrective
action plan by the end of this month, because it's
not just about tracking how bad it is now, but
(05:23):
where's it going and what are you going to do
about this?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Because these are by.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
By the way, by the end of January, if they
have not been able to take meaningful action, we're going
to shut down funding to these fourteen suspect programs that
puts a lot of people at risk. And this is
the point I really wanted to make to anyone listening.
This is not just about stamping out waste, fraud and abuse.
That's critical, But when you don't do it, the people
who pay the price are the folks, the voterable people
(05:49):
from these programs were designed. So you have an autism
program now, and I'm sure you've reported on this. I
summarized it in the post I did last week. It
was supposed to be a three million dollar program. It's
been over four hundred million dollars.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Now how do you do that?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
You do it by getting people to lie about whether
their children have autism.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You get it by having.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Scoundrels pay money bidding wars to get these kids into
their their there they're kiddy because they can make so
much money off them. But the real per party is
not just the taxpayer, it's the parents whose kids really
have autism.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
What happens to them when I've got to shut the.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Whole program down because I can't tell good from bad?
How do you separate the week from the chaff? When
you've got so much corruption, and almost all of it
seems to be in areas where the most vulnerable population
is a's just the homeless substance use disorder.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I mean, who wants to.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Take away homes from people in Minnesota in the freezing cold. Well,
if you go to take a program from a million
dollars or two million dollars to one hundred million dollars,
it's not sustainable. And we're going to stick the Minnesota
taxpayer with the bill because right now they're Minnesota. I
believe leadership allowed this to go on because it wasn't
coming out of pockets taxpayers in Texas, in Florida, and
(07:02):
New York, California, they were.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Paying the bill.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Once we say we're done, not only is there a
moratorium of new people entering it, but we're not going
to pay for the program at all. That's what we
did with the housing program. If you're if you're homeless
at a hospital in Minnesota, need to go to a
place to stay together out of the hospital, we're not
paying for anymore.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
It's on you.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
So all these great things that were being tried by
folks who are progressive and thoughtful and trying to make
new and better ways work, it doesn't happen. But let
me quote someone that you'll know well, Hubant Humphrey. I
work in the Humphrey Building in Washington. The atrium the
entryway of the building is a beautiful quote from your
past senator and it's and vice president, and it says,
(07:41):
the moral obligation of government is to take care of
those at the dawn of life. Those are the children,
those are the twilight of life, the seniors, and those
who are living in the shadows. That's who are supposed
to benefit from these programs when you allow people to steal,
so millions are not when you let people steal from
these programs, are the people you're hurting. It never crossed
(08:01):
anyone's mind sixty years ago when Medicaid medicare created that
scoundrels would infiltrate. But I'm seeing this now across the country.
It's worse in Minnesota than in a lot of places
because it's in a duty by your governor's administration, and
there wasn't anybody really going after what seems to have
been known by everyone in Minnesota but no one outside
(08:22):
the state. But we have to be aggressive across the
country on these issues.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Talking with doctor Oz again, a CMS administrator, you mentioned
the withholding of the funding.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
What else can be.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Done at the federal level, regarding the specific fraud here
in Minnesota, I think, you know, I think most of
us would like to see this handled at the local level.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You know, at the state level. This is where it's
taking place.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Even though you mentioned the federal dollar aspect of this,
you know, how much power does the federal government have.
Does your medicare and medicaid services have to tackle this?
Is there more that you can do, even beyond just
the withholding of funds if this doesn't comply with your demands,
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
I mean, we have an Office of inspect to General.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I've been meeting with them.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
They are actively engaged looking at criminal conduct.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
People are going to be in trouble. But here's a problem.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
I'm going to share with you openly. When you commit
a bank robbery, you go to jail for a long time,
and maybe you steal.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
You know, twenty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
You can come into medicator Medicare steal millions of dollars,
Your jail sentence is going to be eighteen months, right.
So that's a good deal for a lot of people.
And I think that's one serious problem with white collar crime,
when you steal much of that magnitude from the taxpayers.
You have got to go away for a while. The
penalties have to match the crime. I also believe that
(09:44):
I'm that we can focus on the criminals and putting
them in jail, and I want to do that. But
my primary responsibility is protect you and your listeners, the
taxpayers of America. I don't want the money going out
the door, because once it goes out the door, it disappears.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I'll give you a couple of examples.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
We have five times more durable medical equipment suppliers in
South Florida than McDonald's.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Come on, are you serious? We think the.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Cuban government's involved. These folks seem to flee there after
they get indicted, and so when we indict people in Minnesota,
we don't want them running to other countries. I don't
want them going back to Somalia. I want them staying
right there in Minnesota so they can deal with these issues.
We've got criminal conduct. We have a big multinational mafia
organization that we shut down fifteen billion dollars of attempt
(10:28):
at theft. All the perpetrators fled to Russia and the
Baltic States. So these people aren't the Americans, but they
see us as having a social network that we treasure
and generally don't try to take advantage of. But they
don't care. They're just stealing money from America. It doesn't
matter that they're taking it from our most vulnerable. So
we have got to weaponize our resistance to these crowds.
(10:49):
Just like what happened with the weaponization of the fraud
it stulf. What happened in Minnesota was many of these
folks in the Simonian community and some others, but most
of the indictments seem.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
To be in the Surmarian community. They realized during.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
COVID that they are these really loosely created programs. Again,
they seem like they're nice, they seem like they're kind,
they're basically towing money at issues. They took advantage of it.
They realized nobody was watching the till, so they went
back over and over again and they created more frauds
in autism services and transportation services and housing services. And
of course, once they realized that he could get away
(11:24):
with it, they weaponized it.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
We have to respond in kind well.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Governor Tim Wall says that he welcomes, you know, a
federal investigation into what's going on, so you know, I
imagine that he should be more than willing to hand
over all the information that CMS and you, doctor Oz
are demanding. My expectations are low that he's going to
do that, but that's what he did say publicly, so
one would think that he would be complying with what
it is that you are looking for regarding these matters.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Well, I'm glad he's staying the right message. I'm hoping
it feels the same way when we begin to discover
what's happening.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
When did you first find out? I mean, when was
this brought to your attention this year? I'm just I'm
curious how that came about when you guys started to investigate.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
What was going on.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
So, the state of Minnesota had actually started an investigation
in twenty twenty four, again untimely because the governor was
running for vice president, but there was evidence at that
point and the state said, well, we're going to run
an investigation using outside contractors. They told us they could
handle it, and at the last week of August they
(12:29):
approached our team at a meeting. You know, they had
conferences for folks who are working in health services, who
are generally good people, by the way, and they told
us in an informal way, Listen, we got a problem.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
You know, we thought we could handle this. We can't.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
And so that sort of set off a cascade of
events that have culminated. And again the more it's like,
I hate the use surgeries of metaphor, but I am
a surgeon. You know, when you started to breed the abscess,
you don't often know how deep it goes. But the
more we started over the last month to look into
this problem, the more we realized this is catastrophic. And
it's not just in Minnesota. There's a report yesterday for Maine,
(13:04):
not much smaller than scope so far, but again, we
don't know do we begin to investigate it. But at
least the good news is we have the right people
in the room talking about what needs to happen and
investigating it and putting some numbers behind these criminal activities.
And we have got the OIG and FBI. I've talked
to Cash Totel about this and in Pambondi as well,
that everybody is riled up about this. Again, it's not
(13:28):
just the money. The money's big, it's terrible, but it's
the people you're hurting. Again, I'm going to bring this
this stuff.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
In the light.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
If you cannot get a patient discharge from a hospital
in Minnesota because there's no housing, be able to just
sit there for months running up massive tallies. We want
these programs to exist, but not this way. And when
I find this much fraud, you've got to burn the
whole village down. You've got to shut it all down,
and that's not a good way to run programs. You
want to be more targeted in your efforts.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
CMS Administrator, Doctor memment Oz, Doctor Oz, it's a pleasure
to speak with you, and I hope that after the
first of the year, when we were awaiting the further
audit relating to just how big all the fraud is,
there's still a big question mark on that, but you're right,
it's more than likely going to be into the billions
of dollars. And I hope that we have an opportunity
to speak after the first of the year to find
out how your continued investigations are going and whether or
(14:17):
not the state is complying. But I thank you so
much for the work that you're doing in your time
on the show this morning.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It's greatly appreciated.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Well God bless you. We've got boots on the ground there.
Now I'll have lots to talk about and I look
forward to coming back and visiting with you.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Now, those boots on the ground are welcome to come
on by the studio anytime, sir. So thank you, thank
you so much for joining us this morning. All right,
coming up, If taxpayers knew how bad it was, they
would be outraged. County worker offers an inside look at
the fraud story from Alpha News.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I'll share with you some details.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I believe I actually have audio of that main fraud
that doctor Oz was talking about that I can share
as well. And representative at Elliott Ingen, also running for
state Auditor, will be joining us in studio just after
seven thirty and we'll get to your talkbacks from the
iHeartRadio app as are brought to you by Lyndahl Realty.
They're coming up on Twin City's News Talk Am eleven
thirty and one oh three five FM.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Hey John, I had a work meeting from six to
seven this morning, so I missed the first hour.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Is there anywherey I can go to find the recording
of that hour?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Thank you. I have a great day.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Now it's time to make up for some missed talkbacks,
have a good day, Hans.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I feel like you're I feel like you're doing that
just to provide me the opportunity to say, go to
the iHeartRadio app and download the podcast.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Because you're listening on the iHeartRadio app. But yes, there is.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You can always get caught up on the podcast if
you missed any portion of the show by simply going
to the iHeartRadio app and.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That the podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
As a matter of fact, that's what I had Devin
do this morning in the Master Control booth. I had
him pull one of the answers to a question yesterday
from gubernatorial candidate Attorney Chris Maddele regarding what Republicans are
or are not doing relating to fraud. So when Representative
Elliott Ingen, who by the way, is downstairs waiting to
(16:13):
come on up when he joins us in the studio
in the next segment, we'll ask him about that, I'm
going to replace some of Mattel's answer and we'll get
the answer from Elliott Ingen, also running for auditor, so
he'll be in studio with us here just a moment,
But thank you so much for the top back brought
to you by and all realty, the.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
People that are committing the fraud and the embstment of
government dollars through social programs that are largely pushed by
Democrats seem to be more concerned about how the Democrat
Party or the government apparatus is going to treat them
than they are about the legal consequences of their actions.
So we really need to start seeing some people that
are actually facing legal consequences on a large scale.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I think that would be one.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
Rate start in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well, well, certainly we're certainly starting to see that. As always,
these things take time and it doesn't move as fast
as all of us would like. I had a talkback
that rolled in earlier that I didn't bother wasting airtime on,
but basically griping over why is it walls locked up yet? Well,
because there hasn't been any evidence of criminal wrong dooing
(17:23):
to go and do that. No, we can't just start
arresting people over our assumptions, even if our assumptions turn
out to be correct, and just that's not how things work.
So from Alphanews, I'm going to bring you a portion
of this. It needs we need some time to breathe
on this particular story. So again, there's a just a
lot going on, So let me give you just the
(17:44):
bullet points on this. A Minnesota welfare worker says the
state's public benefit system is riddled with loopholes that enable
large scale fraud, and frontline staff are often afraid to
question suspicious cases for fear of being label as a racist.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
The workers said.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
They came forward because they believe Minnesotan's are unaware of
the scale and the structure of the problem. Here's one,
here's one issue on this, and then we'll we'll put
a pin in this and we will return to it.
But one of the largest loopholes that we're dealing with
right now, according to this whistleblower, involves religious only marriages.
I had not heard about this until I found this
(18:25):
story from Alpheus. They're common among East African households that
they work with. Couples who are married only through a
religious ceremony are treated in the system as unmarried parents.
Even when they live together and share children. They will say, yes,
we're married, but only religiously. In the system, that means
(18:45):
that they're coded as unmarried.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So why does this matter?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Well, the mother claims all the children and the father's
income is entirely excluded, so they get the benefits of
a single parent household while living together as a two
parent family. The worker said they have yet to see
the Somali marriage that is court documented. In cases that
they process, it changes everything in the eligibility calculation. The
(19:13):
lower the income, the more generous the benefits. When we
talk about how we've only hit the tip of the
iceberg relating to the fraud, it's items like this that
we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
At this point.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
The question needs to be asked, what program right now
wherein there are social benefits available through taxpayer dollars medicaid funding,
which program isn't fraudulent.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
That's the way that we need to start examining this.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And I'm also convinced that what we're going to see next,
the next phase of the conversation that we're talking about,
is going to be this nationwide exposure of systemic fraud,
specifically in the Democrat Party, as we talked about with
doctor Oz at the top of the hour, he said,
you know, in Maine there was a new instance where
(20:02):
it popped up. I had conversations with individuals out of Colorado,
and by the way, I got that wrong. Earlier, I
was talking with Sarah westall this week. She's actually here
in the Twin Cities. The conversation I was referring to
was Mandy Connell out of out of Denver, Colorado earlier
when I had mentioned the situation that they were dealing
with regarding Venezuelan immigrants.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
But let me share this story here and then we'll have.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Representative Elli and Ingen join us in studio here on
Twin Cities News Talk. This is a Democrat representative out
of Georgia who was indicted this week.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
On pandemic fraud.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Again, this is going to be the next big phase
exposure of the systemic fraud taking place across the country
by those on the left. This is the story here
from Fox News.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Dded for fraud, we're learning more about this Georgia lawmaker.
She is accused of illegally colecting pandemic benefits. And you're
taking a look at Sharon Henderson. Federal investigators arrested her today.
They say she collected nearly eighteen thousand dollars in unemployment
benefits using false information. Federal prosecutors say this happened while
(21:14):
Henderson was a political candidate and later while serving in office.
They believe she first applied for pandemic unemployment benefits in
June twenty twenty, at the time, she was running for
a state House seat, and claimed she was unemployed because
Henry County schools had closed. Prosecutors say that information was false.
They say she'd not worked for the school system since
(21:35):
briefly serving as a substitute teacher in twenty eighteen, and
that her employment agreement specifically said substitutes were not eligible
for unemployment pay now. According to this indictment, Henderson continued
certifying weekly benefits and to make twenty twenty one, including
eight filings made after she was sworn into office as
a state representative for District one thirteen. During those filings,
(21:59):
officials say she repat he italy claims she was unable
to work because of pandemic related issues, but investigators say
those statements allowed her to receive seventeen eight hundred dollars
eight hundred and eleven dollars in benefits she was not
entitled too. Now, she is expected to plead not guilty
when she appears in federal court today. Will continue to
(22:19):
keep you updated on this story.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
The story from Rosall Fox News.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You know, it's interesting because people always wonder like how
certain representatives, you know, Johan Omar, how they have all
of this money even though they have a very small salary.
At least in this case, we know for this woman
it was actually fraudulent. Puts a big question mark on
a lot of other people.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Though.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Representative Ellie at Ingen, also running for an auditor here
in Minnesota, joins me and Studio next here on Twin
City's News Talk on Carpet's Plus poem of the Next
Day Install Studios. You're listening to iHeartRadio AM eleven thirty
and FM one oh three point five.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
This is the Twin Cities news talk station.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Almost should have been recording the conversation I was having
off the air with Representative Elliott Ingen and also running
for state auditor here on Twin Cities News Talking AM
eleven thirty one oh three five FM. My name is
John Justice, and I'm glad you're with the show from
the six five to one Carpet Plus Next Day Install Studios.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Good morning, Elliott, how are we doing? Nice to see again? Boy?
What a world man?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Oh my gosh, what kind of impact just out of
the gate, What kind of impact Have you thought much
about when the legislature reconvenes next year, what kind of
impact all this net? Well, let me just ask you,
do you think all of this national attention on these
issues that we just had doctor oz on the on
(23:46):
the phone at the top of the hour, and the
investigations that CMS is doing into Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
You know, I reported this morning.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
That DHS has arrested some four hundred people and these
are individuals here illegally that have also committed under So
what is your anticipation in the legislature reconvenes what in February?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Right, Yep, it's coming up.
Speaker 7 (24:06):
We have a bunch of bills already sitting on my
desk ready to go that would tackle a lot of
these issues. But I think Democrats are faced with kind
of a weird, a weird option of actually pretend to
do something about it and you know, give the public
the notion that they actually care about fraud or they
actually care about our public programs that are completely being
just ripped off every day, or do they just try to,
(24:30):
you know, character assassinate Republicans and continue with the look,
you're being racist against them, allies, and we're going to
talk more about how you're trying to take away rights
for Lgbtquia folks. It's like they always try to throw
in some sort of a distraction. So I don't know
what they're gonna end up doing with that, but we're
gonna be hard on the paint that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Well, Trump's comments that he's made, regardless of how anybody
feels about him, there's a couple of different ways you
can look at him, you know, with his painting with
a broad brunch. The entire Somali community. Democrats have certainly
lashed onto that, and that's not a huge that's not
a huge surprise because he is he is painting with
the broadbrush, you know, to your point, that's what they've
(25:11):
been solely focused on. You had Governor Tim Walls in
Seattle as he bails you know, out of the states
in the middle of Winboro. He always does international taciti.
I said, less there's a crisis, he runs one or
two things. He was either going to go mediasylent or
he was going to bail out. He was going to
leave the state, and sure enough he left the state.
So he talks about him, you know, Trump calling him
the r word. He talks about the comments that Trump
(25:33):
has made about the Somali community. Of course he avoids
all of the reasons why those comments are being made.
You know, do you think that's going to derail efforts,
you know, heading into the legislative sasion.
Speaker 7 (25:44):
I think Tim Walls is so narcissistic and egotistical that
he always wants to talk about the rhetoric rather than
the policy. You know, he doesn't actually want to talk
about how he has overseen, enabled, and incentivized all of
this fraud. And he's not going to do a single
damn thing about that. But he'll go up on stage
all day and say, look, he's demonizing people with disabilities,
(26:05):
he's demonizing different communities.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
It's like, come on, just do your damn job. So
I got a couple of things that I want to
do with you this morning. We had attorney and gubernatorial
candidate Chris Maddele on the show yesterday.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Listen to that.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
He had some rather you know, pointed remarks regarding what
you know, GOP lawmakers, you know, yourself included.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I agree with him, haven't done a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So we're gonna what I'm gonna do here coming up
in just a moment. I'm gonna replay his answer to
the question regarding what Republicans should be doing in his
opinion that I want to get your.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Thoughts on it.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, before we do, I know that you had mentioned
so I had talked a moment ago, and I'm going
to get into this a little bit later on Alpha
News has a story of a Minnesota welfare worker. I'm
talking about the state public benefits system riddled with loopholes,
including one I had never heard of before, Elliott, wherein
couples who are married only through religious ceremonies are treated
(26:57):
in the system as unmarried. So this is common within
East African households. I'd never heard of this before, buried
by religious means only.
Speaker 7 (27:08):
Had you heard of this price, Yeah, I have, because
then it just allows for more funding from Medicaid dollars
to flow for single parents.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
What does that mean? What does that mean in religions?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I mean, but is there no formal ceremony in which
they're declared legally married?
Speaker 7 (27:22):
That's correct, and then there's no governmental paper within the
state of Minnesota that says that they are, So.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Can anybody do that?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So if somebody is if if like a religious exemption. Okay,
that's that's what they're claiming. I have to throw Devon
into this because I have no idea what his background.
But let's say Devon was dating somebody, they were living together,
and he went and was looking for services like this.
Could he go and say that we're married religiously? Would
he have to provide evidence of that?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (27:45):
I don't know what you would have to provide. That's
actually a good question, Devin. You know, I don't think.
I don't know, but I am married. So okay, let's
hope I don't.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Have to do.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I had no idea. This is how little Devin and
I talked to it. I had no idea you were married.
I had no clue. Good for you, Devin.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So again, I had never heard of this before. Is
there a way to go and close this loopholes? Is
something that needs to be identified.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
And looked at.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
This is one of so many loopholes. Oh my gosh,
I mean the fraud that we're about to uh on.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
This is my next question because I know you have
something else beyond this as well. So this is something
that needs to be looked at before we get to
Mattle's question. Let's get to The main reason why we
were going to have you on this morning is that
there's been new fraud that's been uncovered that day that's
not been.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Talked about yet. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
So, if you guys remember back, Tim Walls all of
a sudden decided that he wanted to get serious about
fraud and I put air quotes around that because it's
nothing other than him trying to save his own electoral hide,
seeing this as an electoral risk. He paused for ninety
days fourteen different programs within DHS that deal with Medicaid dollars,
and in those audits that he was going to be
(28:58):
performing during those ninety days, they contracted DHS did with
Optum Services, which is owned by United Health Group. Okay,
so I know it's a lot to follow right now,
but United Health Group is not statutorily allowed to be
overseeing Medicaid management dollars right now because they've engaged in
conflicts of interest in the past and agree just billing practices.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
So it was so odd to see that they.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
Were given a two point three million dollar contract to
quote unquote find the fraud and figure out all the loopholes,
and then turns out, well, why did they get that contract.
George McNulty, who works within DHS and authorizes that contract.
That grant also happened to work for Optum for United
Health Group. So the conflicts of interest even extend into
(29:45):
them pretending to care about fraud. This is so convoluted,
and how these people sleep at night, it's it's disgusting.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
So let's back up. Let's back up, because this just happened. Yeah,
this just happened.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
So you had Governor Chim Walls, he had halted Was
this the disability waivers issue?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Is this what you're referring to?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Is there a fourteen different programs, right, and then the
pause and DHS funding that you're mentioning now, is that
the disability waivers are referring to it.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So that is the disability waivers.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Okay, because I want to get back to that in
just a moment because he last, So let me go
here just briefly, and we're going to try to navigate
all of this because I'm trying to make sense of
it as well, because it's all really fresh. Because again,
we had just talked about this last week. So a
year ago, on December fourth, Governor Tim Wallas had held
a press conference wherein he talked about how the eighteen
(30:37):
billion dollars surplus was gone yep, and the state was
now looking at a historic deficit.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Right.
Speaker 7 (30:44):
Well, he painted a rosy picture, but yeah, we saw
the numbers on the paper.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
In that press conference he said part of the reason
why was because of the funding through the disability waivers yep.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Okay, so he knew of it. That was a year ago.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
So first off, how much did those disability waivers impact
the reduction of our surplus? Because that was that was
the takeaway that I covered last week on.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
The show, was do we now have a means or.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
A place where we can look and go okay, fraud
may have been taking place within DHS and these disability waivers,
and that might have been what drew down the majority
of the of the surplus.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
You are going to you're gonna freak out when you
hear this number. So there are three hundred and six
thousand total number of medicaid providers in the state of Minnesota.
There's twenty point nine billion that we're paid to those
providers in twenty twenty four. How much twenty point nine billion? Okay,
(31:49):
So when we're talking about one billion in fraud or
two billion, even eight billion. I mean that's like, you know,
the most high number that Republicans tend to throw around, Well,
it could be closer to fourteen fifteen billion dollars. And
this is state and federal dollars. That DHS is is
just trying to mix around numbers and fudge with statistics
(32:10):
to make it seem like everything's unky.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Doory, and just so I can try to make this
palatable for people to understand in case people if somebody
isn't following. Let's say you've got two water tanks. The
water tank on the left is the surplus and it's
filled with water. The one on the right is in
this case like disability waivers and the funding that you're mentioning.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
So essentially, you.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Got twenty point nine billion dollars that's needed. You would
drain the water tank of the surplus and order to
fill up the tank that's required for the funding for
the for the disability waivers.
Speaker 7 (32:44):
Right, But you'd first wonder why in the heck you
need twenty point nine billion dollars in the first place, right, Yeah,
I haven't got into that, right, Right, So there's such
a drastic increase, there's a seven hundred percent increase in
housing stabilization service providers. It went from a six million
dollar program to a three hundred million dollar program in
the span.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Of three years.
Speaker 7 (33:01):
Why because fraudsters are recognizing that Minnesota is right for
the picking and every single time that there's a compassionate program,
they use that as a guys for their corruption. They
come in, they start up a nonprofit, they go to
the legislature and say, if you don't give us this money,
then you're not compassionate and you're not nice. And then
the legislature forks it over and then those same fraudsters
turn around and then cut a campaign check to Democrats.
(33:23):
It's a rinseasher, repeat cycle. And this is all incentivized
enabled and Democrats have known about this.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Okay, So getting back to DHS and what you mentioned
a moment ago with with optim let's get back to that.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Yeah, so you have that.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Last year Walls talks about identifying that the disability waiver increased.
They didn't expect it could have contributed to drawing down
the surplus. Again, that was last year, and then just
over the course of the past few weeks there's concern
of fraud within the disability waivers, and so he says
we are going to put a pause on funding starting
(33:58):
January first to those programs because of the concern of
fraud yep. And then through that Optum is hired to
do the.
Speaker 7 (34:07):
Audit, to do the audit, and they themselves are not
even eligible to do so because they've engaged in fraud.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
In the past.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
And on top of that, there's a conflict of events.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
You have the conflict of interest within DHS because of
the individual within DHS who was tied to Optum right.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Well, and he's not the only one that's done this.
Speaker 7 (34:26):
I mean, their commissioner actually proved thirty million dollars in
grants to her own consulting.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Agency in the past.
Speaker 7 (34:34):
And this is all stuff that we're going to be
on earthing when we start up our thirty fraud sites
in thirty days tour. But it is so disgusting it
would make the mafia blush what's going on within our
state agencies.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
So what do you think the hope, I mean, what
is the hope here in your mind? I mean, I
know we're speculating, right, we don't have evidence of this.
You certainly have a conflict of interest in terms of
optum going and as you said, they well, if they're
not even allowed, they shouldn't even be performing the audit.
I mean, why are they Why can it not be.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Stopped rulemaking authority? I mean DHS is just acting on
their own behalf. And what's so disgusting too, is this
was probably a backdoor deal that Tim Wall's also okayed.
I mean, United Health is the largest employer here in
the state. Democrats are in bed with big government and
big business, and this was a payof to both of them.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
On first blush, it would it would appear like as
you tell the story, as we work through it and
what's going on, is it just to me like it
seems to me that they've really set up a perfect,
perfect scenario to simply continue to muddy the issue.
Speaker 7 (35:37):
Yeah, if they can make it more confusing and convoluted
for people to understand, eventually people just kind of tune out,
and I think feeding our future. While it's obviously something
that needs to be talked about, it was talked about
so much that it almost disenfranchised and made people not
really understand how bad the fraud is in other places too.
(35:57):
Right when we're talking potentially fifteen billion dollars in fraud.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
I mean, think about that. Think about that.
Speaker 7 (36:05):
And this is all Democrat enabled so that they can
feeded their own coffers and they could have more people
reliant on the system also that they.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Can get more votes well.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
And what's frightening about all of it is we were
talking about this off the air, and we'll hold you
over for a bit. We got still got a lot
to get into here, but we were talking about this
on the air, and again I mentioned it with doctor
Oz at the top of the hour, and I have
with most of the people that I've spoken outside of
Minnesota in that we certainly haven't been complacent about the fraud.
(36:36):
Now we've talked about it, it's attempted to be addressed
at the legislative level. You have had local media do
coverage on these stories, but there's never any typical follow
up like what we're seeing now on the national level
of the outrage. And you can hear it this morning
in doctor Oz and is in the comments that he made.
(36:58):
You know, the outrage that seeing from outside of Minnesota
as they see what's going on that should have happened
here and it didn't. When you had coverage of these
stories via these news outlets. They did do for the
most part their due diligence as the exposure of the
fraud became relevant. But then when the voices of opposition
(37:21):
smoke up to talk about how bad this was, I mean,
those were mostly silent, and so you never had that
court of public opinion, you know, MINSLA was never on
the national schedule generation that should have happened here in
it and it didn't.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
But now but now we are we can thank Tim
Walls for that.
Speaker 7 (37:38):
I mean, being who he is, I think he's really
put a magnifying glass on himself and how he governs.
And that's why all of this is coming to fruition now,
even though we've been yelling about it for a long time.
But I know we need to listen to Chris Maddel's clip.
But I do believe that there's been a lot of
Republicans who kind of sit on their hands and they
wait for the news to be reported and then they
just simply respond to it. The very reactive in trying
(38:01):
to unearth this fraud and actually tell the public what's
going on, and that laziness has allowed us to get
here as well.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Before we take take a break, let me ask you
one question and then we'll and then when we come
back after the top, we'll get to uh, we'll get
to Chris Maddle's comment from yesterday, and we'll get your
we'll get your thoughts on. If you have any questions
for Representative Elliott Ingen, feel free to leave us a
talk back on the iHeartRadio apples are brought to you
by Lindahl Realty. But with regard to what you mentioned
this morning, the conflict of interest within DHS optum doing
(38:32):
the investigation into whether or not fraud was occurring, what
will be done, what needs to be done regarding that
particular issue that you announced this morning Here on there.
Speaker 7 (38:42):
Are conflict of interest statutes and they come with criminal penalties,
and if they're not pursued, we need to make it
a politically disadvantageous act for Keith Ellison to not go
after these bad actors, right, And I think as we're
running for state auditor, we're trying to demonstrate that if
you expose it so large and the public really understands
(39:03):
what's going on and how egregious this is. Any Democrat
that acts to protect the fraudsters or to enable the
broken system to continue serving itself. They're going to be
they're gonna be chopped liver. They're gonna lose because people
understand the truth now, and that's what we're trying to
do with this. So we need to expose it first,
and then we need to make sure that we press
the Attorney General to actually act all out.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Holding my breath, we'll get to your comments. Coming up.
We'll talk more with running for
Speaker 1 (39:29):
State auditor, but current Representative Elliott Ingen more with him next,
and of course you in the iHeartRadio app here on
Twin City's news talk about AM eleven thirty and one
oh three five FM
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!