Fraud is not theoretical. It is a continuous, documented reality across public programs, and the evidence is overwhelming.
In June 2026, the Justice Department charged 455 defendants in health care schemes totaling more than $6.5 billion in false claims to Medicare and Medicaid.
These cases spanned 45 states, involved licensed professionals and included transnational networks. Broader tallies put identified losses even higher. Fraud against public programs is persistent and disbelief is often selective.
Seattle has seen this firsthand. In 2010, federal prosecutors and Seattle police dismantled a SNAP trafficking operation in the International District. Store owners and runners paid recipients roughly 50 cents on the dollar for benefits, then redeemed the full value for food never delivered. One small store redeemed more than $2 million in a single year; investigators concluded most of it was fraudulent. A runner observed trafficking across multiple years was arrested and later imprisoned.
The pattern didn’t stop. In October 2025, Seattle police identified 18 suspects and arrested 11 in another EBT trafficking ring in the same neighborhood. The methods were identical: half value cash exchanges, directed purchases resold for profit, and operations brazen enough for surveillance to document them.
Vulnerable cardholders were the source; drug dealers sometimes waited for the cash.
Nonprofit and child care fraud follows the same script. In Minnesota, the Feeding Our Future scandal diverted hundreds of millions in federal child nutrition funds through shell nonprofits claiming to feed children who never received meals. Dozens were charged and convicted.
In Washington, lawmakers advanced SB 5926, expanding public records exemptions to hide personal identifying details of licensed child care providers, including those receiving substantial taxpayer subsidies.
Transparency would shrink precisely when fraud concerns were rising.
The proposal drew sharp criticism and stalled.
Anyone who saw the 2010 SNAP evidence and then claimed the problem was solved should be dismissed. The same applies to nonprofits and subsidized providers when transparency is reduced.
The record is continuous. Denial requires ignoring data.
By contrast, election related irregularities, registration errors, double voting and isolated ballot problems do occur and are prosecuted.
But large-scale coordinated voter fraud capable of flipping statewide results remains rare, and deserves scrutiny.
Courts across the country have repeatedly found no evidence supporting claims of stolen elections.
Fraud claims arise when someone loses because loss creates incentive. Winning never does.
That pattern appears in every system where outcomes carry political weight. The absence of evidence for massive fraud is not proof that irregularities never happen.
These cases show what happens when program design leaves room to convert restricted public value into unrestricted cash, or when transparency is curtailed.
Honest, coherent citizens demand better real time controls and an end to pay and chase systems.
Fraud isn’t imaginary. Denial is a choice, not a finding.
I’m not accusing any party of anything. I’m pointing out that facts matter everywhere.
Growing up in Missouri taught me one thing: when you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one you hit is the one that yelps.
Ray Anderson
Ethel
