Vice President JD Vance stated on May 5, 2026, that uncovering fraud within the federal government was like “fishing in a barrel with dynamite.” The statement comes after an investigative report from The Daily Wire was released earlier in the week revealing that Ohio was handing out federal Medicaid money to people for simply spending time with family members.
Vance, who is currently in charge of President Donald Trump’s Fraud Task Force, went on to say he’s surprised every week to find what kind of fraud the team was digging up. “Finding fraud in the federal government, it’s kind of like fishing in a barrel with dynamite. Every week, I get a report for the task force,” Vance said during a speech in Iowa.
“I am shocked every single day by the things that we find,” he added. Vance had promised on May 4 that the Fraud Task Force would look into the matters covered in The Daily Wire’s report on Medicaid fraud in his home state. “These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force’s work is so important,” he said in a post published on X.
“I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate,” he continued, sharing a thread posted by the journalist who wrote the report, Luke Rosiak. Rosiak’s piece revealed that Ohio spent over a billion dollars on home health care in 2024.
What the funds were sent for was difficult to verify because the money went to services allegedly performed in private residences by family members of the individuals receiving care. During his speech in Iowa, Vance stated that the administration was working toward busting fraudsters who were getting fat bank accounts by defrauding American taxpayers, according to The Daily Wire.
“We had let fraud become so rampant in this country that people were able to get rich, not by creating something amazing, not by employing something, not by building something beautiful with their hands,” Vance told the crowd during his address. “They were able to get rich by defrauding every single person in this room.”
The vice president then said that Somali fraudsters in Minnesota had taken advantage of a program that was designed to help autistic kids and talked about waste found in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that was uncovered by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Vance said that Rollins found 335,000 people receiving double SNAP benefits, along with 186,000 people on the program that were dead.
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“I actually think that we should take food stamps away from dead people,” Vance said with a hint of humor. “I’m guilty of that. I think that’s a reasonable thing.” The battle over the SNAP fraud is now headed to individual states where lawmakers are working to eliminate a loophole called broad-based categorical eligibility, which allows folks to qualify for SNAP without asset testing. Other states have placed strict work requirements on the SNAP program to try and curb waste.
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