Vance cites ‘widespread fraud’ in gov’t programs during Maine visit

May 14 (UPI) — Vice President JD Vance renewed his focus on “widespread fraud” in government programs meant to aid the poorest and neediest in society Thursday in Maine as he campaigned for local Republicans.

Vance, who heads a White House “Task Force to Eliminate Fraud,” praised former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, running as the GOP candidate for the state’s 2nd Congressional District, as tough on what he called the “festering problem” of “illegal immigrant communities who have taken benefits that ought by rights go to the people in this room.”

Targeting Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, the vice president said during his appearance in Bangor, “Your government hasn’t done anything about it. You ask yourself, why did Maine go from a state that did not have a serious fraud problem to one where I can honestly say it’s one of the worst states in the union?

“And I’ll give you two answers and two politicians. Number one is Janet Mills and number two is Joe Biden. And thankfully one of them has already been kicked to the curb and one is on her way out the door exactly as it should be.”

LePage, in contrast, “took concrete action to try to fight back against fraud. He doubled the number of fraud investigations when he was the governor of this state. That’s an amazing thing,” Vance asserted.

LePage has no Republican primary opponent.

In a response, Mills called Vance’s remarks “nothing but a weak attempt to distract from the Trump Administration’s failing agenda, endless war in Iran, and failure to control crushing costs — including sky high gas prices — that Maine families and businesses are struggling with every day.

“Maine people deserved to hear about how the Trump Administration is making their lives better by lowering costs, improving health care, building housing, and fixing child care — but we got none of that because the president and vice president don’t actually care about these issues or the hardships they are causing our state and people.”

Vance’s continuing focus on fraud in government programs for the needy, such as Medicaid and unemployment insurance, came a day after he announced the suspension of $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California while likewise threatening to suspend federal funding to any state that doesn’t crack down on alleged fraud.

“There are California taxpayers and American taxpayers who are being defrauded because California isn’t taking its program seriously, but also you have people who have been prescribed medications that they don’t even need,” the vice president said at the White House.

“They’ve had drugs put into their bodies that they don’t need because fraudsters have actually encouraged false prescriptions and false administration of medications.”