Republican Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball and Dr. OJ Oleka, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), both of whom are from Kentucky, exposed how fraud is being used to steal taxpayer dollars on a massive scale when they appeared before the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Government Operations to discuss the matter.
Particularly, during the hearing, which was held on Wednesday the 15th of April and titled “Fraud Prevention: Understanding Fraud in Federally Funded Programs Run by the States,” both witnesses commented on what they have learned while fighting fraud in their purple state of Kentucky, noting that a culture that defers to it is being drained by it.
Commenting on the matter during the hearing, Dr. Oleka explained that allowing fraud to happen and deferring to it as a general course of things is diastrous for a state’s budget, as it is what leads to out of control spending. “When you have a culture that defers to fraud and allows it to stand, then you spend more money,” Dr. Oleka said.
Continuing, he noted how mandated spending on certain programs, particularly when paired with fraud that constantly explodes the size of those programs, leads to higher taxes, higher spending, and more suffering for taxpaying Americans. He said, “When you spend more money that then mandates, based on your political philosophy, an increase in taxes. So, if you increase taxes on hardworking families, now they’re faced with the choice of putting gas in their car [or] paying [for] diapers for their children.”
Adding to that, he noted how caustic it is to society for fraudsters to be living the high life as their hard-working neighbors struggle to pay basic bills while burdened by the high taxes that pay for such fraudulent spending. He began, “There’s a real cost that families have to go through all because fraud wasn’t detected.”
He added, “And it [fraud] also sows distrust, because you have people who are trying to survive on WIC [Women, Infants, and Children] or SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] or government benefits, and they look to their left and they see one of their neighbors who’s a fraudster riding around in a Benz buying as much food as they can.”
Watch him here:
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Dr. Oleka wasn’t the only one. During the hearing, Ball was asked by Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is Kentucky’s Democratic Governor, Andy Beshear, was “helpful in turning over information or anything to help come to the conclusion that you came to with respect to the amount of fraud.”
Ball said the Democrat was not helpful, and indeed had essentially blocked investigations of fraud. Ball began, “I really do believe these are nonpartisan issues, and we should be able to work together. Unfortunately, I have to say it’s not been a great system of cooperation.”
Continuing, Ball said. “Boots on the ground people have been helpful. When it comes to rising levels of leadership, it does get to be more difficult to get information from them, and it’s only gotten more difficult as time has gone by.” She added, “So, the unfortunate answer is no. It’s actually been disappointing that I’ve not had good cooperation from the top level of the Beshear administration.”
Watch her here: