Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., warned Thursday that the fraud investigators say they have uncovered in Minnesota must end with real consequences, telling Newsmax viewers that "people must be held accountable" for what he called massive abuse of federal dollars.
Appearing on "Wake Up America Early," Meuser argued that the alleged scheme centered in Minneapolis shows why Congress and the Trump administration need stronger oversight of spending that flows through state agencies.
"This is outrageous," he said, describing what he called "levels of waste, abuse, and fraud" that could reach deep into major programs.
The Pennsylvania Republican pointed to Trump officials' estimates to underscore the scale, saying Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent "stated it could be as high as 10%, 15%, even 20%."
Meuser added that "Dr. [Mehmet] Oz over at CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] thinks that within Medicare and Medicaid, the waste, abuse, and fraud could be as high as 20% as well."
"At 20%, you're talking about $1 trillion right there in potential waste of the taxpayers' money," he said, arguing that the stakes demand accountability.
Meuser called Minneapolis "ground zero for the terrible things that are taking place," and said that federal money poured into the area without enough safeguards attached.
"All this federal funding is going there, it's the state's responsibility to allocate it in a responsible manner, and they failed miserably," he said.
He then alleged that officials "perhaps intentionally doled out all of these funds to organizations that really didn't exist," claiming it was done "to gain political favor with those groups."
Meuser said the situation in Minnesota involves arrests tied to the local Somali community, adding, "No offense to Somalians, but it just happened to be their group that's being arrested and is well known, at this point, for extorting … billions of dollars from the American people."
"We're zeroing in on it, and it's not going to stop there," he said, pledging broader scrutiny of states with unusual spending patterns "particularly over the last few years."
Meuser framed the push as part of a wider anti-corruption effort, saying, "Look, we want to drain the swamp," and "bring accountability."
"We want to root out waste, abuse, and fraud," he said, adding that he is "dedicating much of my next year to just that," including "consumer fraud as well as government funding fraud."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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