Minnesota Governor Tim “Walz’s administration was swindled by a scheme that even a village idiot could have detected,” in a scam that was “the nation’s largest single piece of COVID fraud, Minnesota’s $250 million “Feeding the Future” scandal“, explains James Bovard in the New York Post. Taxpayers paid the bill, while left-wing interest groups profited by committing criminal fraud.
As Bovard notes,
Walz’s history of turning a blind eye to the plunder of politically favored racketeers suggests he’ll instead bow to Democrats’ special interests…That would be the nation’s largest single piece of COVID fraud, Minnesota’s $250 million “Feeding the Future” scandal.
The Minneapolis nonprofit received millions from the US Department of Agriculture over nearly two years…But only a small amount was spent as intended….The ghost program was outed in a series of Justice Department indictments in late 2022, after Walz and his administration kowtowed to politically connected nonprofit groups while ignoring fraud warnings from local whistleblowers — and never checking on the charity’s inflated numbers and blatantly fake filings….All but one of the fraudsters were members of Minnesota’s large Somali population, a key voting bloc for Walz’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
After the 2020 election, the state’s Somalis — many represented in Congress by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — were labeled “among the country’s most engaged voters” and credited with keeping former President Donald Trump from winning the North Star State.
The Justice Department has charged 72 politically connected Minnesotans with pilfering $250 million from federal child-nutrition programs during the pandemic. Five have been convicted by a jury, and 18 have pled guilty so far. And they didn’t just skim some cash off the top.
“Almost none of this money was used to feed children,” FBI agent Travis Wilmer said. “Instead, the participants in the scheme misappropriated the money and used it to purchase real estate, cars and other luxury items.”
Some of the plundered cash ended up in the coffers of Omar, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other Democratic politicians.
Walz’s appointees at the state Department of Education “created opportunities for fraud” thanks to their totally “inadequate oversight” and ignored “warning signs” about Feeding Our Future even before the pandemic, a Minnesota legislative audit revealed.
Walz’s administration was swindled by a scheme that even a village idiot could have detected.
Tax dollars were pilfered using the names of phony recipients generated by the website listofrandomnames.com.
Children supposedly named “Unique Problem,” “Serious Problem” and “Friday Donations” were listed as clients.
One restaurant claimed to be serving meals to more children than were enrolled in all the city schools in Minneapolis — but Walz’s wizards never bothered to stop by and check the location….As early as November 2020, state officials recognized trouble and sought to end government funding for Feeding Our Future….In July 2021, Walz presented the Outstanding Refugee Award to Ayan Abukar, who was later indicted for bribery, money laundering, conspiracy to commit bribery, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud tied to Feeding Our Future.
His administration largely ignored the scandal until FBI raids in early 2022 made national headlines.
Tim Walz also helped create an atmosphere of lawlessness in Minneapolis by refusing to deploy the National Guard for days in response to deadly riots, even after the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis begged him to send in the National Guard to end the rioting. Mayor Jacob Frey described how “Gov. Tim Walz failed to take his requests for help seriously until it was too late….Frey said that Walz hesitated to send in the National Guard to quell the growing violence and then blamed him for allowing the city to burn.” The riots caused more than $500 million in damage in Minneapolis and St. Paul and “burned over 1,000 businesses and a police station to the ground.”
As noted earlier, Walz has “a terrible record as governor. Under Walz, Minnesota became a high-crime state for the first time ever. Under Walz, student achievement tumbled even as spending on schools skyrocketed. Under Walz, per capita GDP in Minnesota fell below the national average, for the first time ever. Under Walz, increases in energy costs have far outstripped the national average,” notes the head of a Minnesota think-tank.
Walz dramatically increased government spending in Minnesota, kept taxes high, and ran up one of the worst fiscal records in America. “I gave Tim Walz an ‘F’ on the 2022 Cato Governors Report Card. Big taxer and spender,” says economist Chris Edwards.
“The last time Harris and Walz teamed up was when he allowed rioters to burn down [parts] of Minneapolis and then she raised money to bail them out,” says AG Hamilton.
Dustin Grage links to video of a devastated section of Minneapolis that burned when Walz failed to stem riots for days, riots that Walz viewed sympathetically as a response to a lack of “diversity and inclusion.” “No, this is not a video from a war-torn country in the Middle East. This is the aftermath of the Minneapolis Riots when Minnesota Governor Tim Walz allowed it to burn four consecutive nights. This is the legacy of Kamala Harris’s new running mate,” Grage says.
Erick Erickson said, “Tim Walz refused to add state police resources to quell progressive rioters. He closed churches during COVID and reopened bars but refused to reopen churches. He taxes retiree social security income. He attempted an income tax hike during COVID. He kept kids locked out of public schools. Under Walz, the murder rate in Minnesota jumped over 50%.”
Carjackings in Minnesota jumped by 289% from 2019 to 2020, due in large part to left-wing policies backed by Tim Walz.
The choice of the left-wing Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’s running mate “seems unfortunate for what it signals about kowtowing to left wing and viciously anti-Semitic wings of the party and for weakening chance to win PA,” lamented an anti-Trump lawyer.
The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle, who previously voted for Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton without enthusiasm, expressed skepticism about picking the left-wing Walz, saying, “He has governed Minnesota, a state [Harris] will win handily, as a progressive, which is why progressives have been pushing for him over Shapiro.”
Minnesota’s high taxes and growing number of restrictions on residents under Walz have driven thousands of residents to other states, like Florida, that have lower taxes and less red tape. “Minnesota has lost more residents to Florida than any other state in the country,” notes Grage.
Tim Walz seems sympathetic to socialism. Recently, he said, “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” Harris was urged to pick Walz by members of the Democratic Party’s left-wing, such as Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist.
Economist Chris Edwards notes that Tim Walz likes to raise taxes even when there is no need to do so, such as when he inherited a budget surplus from his precedessor. Walz sought tax increases even when the state was anticipated to have a $17.5 billion budget surplus, spending all of the $17.5 surplus and trying to raise taxes yet again. The high spending during good times could lead to a budget crisis when the economy softens. Some of the surplus should have been saved for a rainy day, as more prudent states do with their “rainy day” funds.
Progressive activist “Van Jones admits that Kamala” Harris “picking Walz” rather than Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro “was her ‘caving in to some of these darker parts in the party’ in terms of appeasing ‘anti-Jewish bigots’ that have ‘gotten marbled into this party.’”
