The uncovering of widespread fraud in Minnesota and other Democrat strongholds has reignited DOGE’s efforts to cut government waste, fraud, and abuse, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) explained on the Alex Marlow Show.
Ernst told host Alex Marlow that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has tasked her as Senate DOGE Caucus Chairwoman to put a package that can move through the Senate.
“Now that we’ve seen what’s going on in Minnesota with the Somali population there and the massive amounts of fraud through federal government programs, people are becoming excited about it again,” she told Marlow.
Widespread reports of rampant fraud in Minnesota, much of it by Somali migrants with the knowledge and blessing – or worse – of Democrat politicians has ignited a firestorm throughout the country as Americans have demanded an end to the use of their taxpayers to fund lavish lifestyles for foreigners. Disgraced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s (D) decision to cancel his reelection campaign after the fraud began snowballing is fueling speculation much more remains to be uncovered about his involvement.
“We’ve got more steam behind us because we have seen the exposing of these learning centers that actually had no children enrolled at them,” Ernst said Wednesday, adding that the caucus was meeting later that day to flesh out an existing legislative plan to present to Thune.
“It’s government efficiency, it’s closing loopholes, it’s exposing fraud. I mean, there are so many different ways we can get at this, but we want one big package that we can move through the Senate and then hopefully the house and get it to the President’s desk for signature,” she added.
While much of the fraud predates the pandemic, legislation passed in 2020 unleashed billions exploited by fraudsters. Ernst will turn her attention to the Paycheck Protection Program and economic injury disaster loan program, two programs plundered by criminals.
“We saw rampant fraud there, where people were actually using when they had to submit their paperwork, their photo IDs, they actually had photos of Barbie dolls as the ID,” she revealed.
Ernst would like to move a massive single package, but acknowledged that Republicans can pluck reforms and cuts out of the package she is assembling to include into other pieces of legislation as well.
“We can either bring this up on the floor as an entire package, which is what the Leader would like to do, or we use it as a pool for amendments as we’re moving other bills on the floor, especially as we’re working on appropriations and so forth,” she explained. “So there’s a number of opportunities that we have with this.”
Unfortunately, Ernst does not expect members of the Senate Democratic Caucus to rush to support the initiative.
“I think there are some reasonable members, but basically it will be cutting off again that, you know, constant flow of money that they’ve used to purchase votes through the years,” she told Marlow, “but the attention that the Minnesota fraud scandal has gotten has really given us legs once again. So it will put some of them in a very difficult position, but it’s absolutely necessary to do this.”
The Alex Marlow Show, hosted by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, broadcasts coast to coast on weekdays from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern on the Salem Radio Network stations. You can listen to the radio show online here. The show also airs at 9 p.m. Eastern on the Salem TV news channel. Marlow’s podcast, The Alex Marlow Show Presented by Breitbart News, is released weekdays at 9 p.m. Eastern. You can subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.