Weflare and SNAP Fraud

1. Minneapolis/St. Paul Somali Fraud Case

• Political Expediency: The speaker expresses frustration with elected officials prioritizing political expediency over responsibility, citing the Twin Cities as an example due to its large Somali population.
• Controversial Accommodations: They mention the presence of prayer rooms in schools and the public “call to prayer” five times a day, contrasting this with a lack of similar accommodations for Christianity/the Bible.
• COVID-19 Grant Scheme: A restaurant/church applied for and received millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief grants, supposedly to feed 5,000 poor people weekly (with some grants allegedly for autistic children). The total fraud is estimated at $250 million.
• Terrorist Funding Allegation: The money was allegedly funneled to Somali terrorist organizations. The people involved in the scam were identified as Somali followers of Islam.
• Political Involvement: Whistleblowers reported the fraud to Governor Tim Walz and the Mayor, but both officials publicly supported the Somali population, which the speaker views as “political expediency.”
• Ilhan Omar: The discussion touches on U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, who is of Somali descent and from that district, suggesting she may have known about or been involved, referencing a disputed past claim that she married her brother.

2. SNAP/Food Stamp Fraud and Abuse

Able-Bodied Recipients: The speaker concludes that able-bodied men of working age should not be receiving SNAP benefits, suggesting they could find work at a local convenience store to support themselves.

High Enrollment: The speaker notes that over 40 million people—more than 10% of the U.S. population—are on food stamps, questioning the scale of the program.

Government Lack of Will: The speaker claims the government lacks the “willpower” or “spine” to clean up the fraud, fearing the political backlash from beneficiaries.

Cash-For-Benefits Scam: The easiest form of fraud involves SNAP card holders going to small, independent grocery stores and trading the electronic benefits for cash at a loss (e.g., charging $800 in benefits to the store in exchange for $200–$300 in cash). The grocery store profits, and the recipient uses the cash for things like casinos or drugs.

Inappropriate Purchases: Concerns are raised about the ability to use SNAP benefits at online retailers like Amazon to purchase expensive items like sirloin steak, lobster, or caviar, arguing that truly needy individuals would buy basic staples (hamburger, milk, bread, eggs).

0:00Why don’t you talk a little bit about

0:01the welfare benefits people are crying

0:03about?

0:04You know what, Mike? Um, I get so upset

0:08when elected officials abdicate their

0:12responsibility in favor of political

0:16expediency.

0:18As you are probably aware, in the Twin

0:20Cities in Minnesota, Minneapolis, St.

0:22Paul, there’s a very, very large Somali

0:26population. Now there’s all kinds of

0:28things that come along with the Somali

0:30population that you know for example uh

0:33in the schools in Minneapolis St. Paul’s

0:35they now have prayer rooms you know they

0:37never had prayer rooms for the Bible or

0:39for Christianity but they have prayer

0:41rooms for for the followers of Islam

0:43because in Minneapolis St. Paul in most

0:46of the city they have the call to prayer

0:48five times a day. You’ve experienced

0:50that in the Middle East. I have too. You

0:51know, I can remember when President

0:53Obama said that uh you know, the call to

0:56prayer was one of the most beautiful

0:57sounds he had ever heard. Well, if you

0:59ever hear um the call to prayer as it’s

1:01broadcast over loudspeakers, um

1:04beautiful is not the word that comes to

1:05my mind. But at any rate, there’s a huge

1:08Somali population which happens to be

1:10Muslim uh followers of Islam. And there

1:13was a church there. Actually, it was a

1:15restaurant that had signed up for

1:18special benefits during COVID to feed

1:205,000 poor people a week. And so, they

1:25built this thing up and somehow they

1:26applied for grants for autistic children

1:29specifically. Uh, but they were getting

1:31these huge grants for millions and

1:34millions of dollars. I think it’s a I

1:36think it’s $250 million total, Mike,

1:39over the over the entire length of time

1:40of the scam. Um but what they were doing

1:43is they were sending that money to

1:45Somali um terrorist organizations. They

1:48were taking taxpayer money that was

1:50supposed to be used to feed these 5,000

1:53poor kids every week. Um at one report I

1:56saw they were spending $200 a week on

1:59food. You know Jesus Jesus divided the

2:03loaves and the fishes to feed the 5,000.

2:05But I don’t think the uh I don’t think

2:07the the restaurant in in the Twin Cities

2:10is is is dividing $200 worth of food in

2:13to feed 5,000 meals. Um at any rate,

2:16there’s this big stink where they

2:18believe that um you know Tim Walls,

2:21there were some there were a couple of

2:22whistleblowers specifically who reported

2:24this to the governor, Tim Walls, and

2:26also to the mayor. And both both the

2:29governor and the mayor stood up and

2:31supported the Somali population of the

2:34Twin Cities, which to me smacks of

2:36political expediency. You know, uh, I’m

2:39going to say nice things about you, even

2:40though we we’re we’ve lost $250 million

2:43somewhere. I’m going to say nice things

2:45about the Somali population. To be fair,

2:48most of the Somali were probably not

2:50involved with this scam, right? The

2:52people were involved with the scam were

2:54Somali, were members of the religion of

2:57Islam and they were taking that money

2:58and sending it to a terrorist group in

3:00Somalia. As a matter of fact, one of the

3:03principal people involved while he was

3:05uh while he was supposed to be an

3:07American citizen or not citizen but here

3:11in America legally was running for

3:13political office in Somalia. So it it it

3:16tells you that he wasn’t wasn’t home

3:18very much. Uh it even reached Ilhan Omar

3:21as you know the president in talking

3:24about this particular scam that was

3:26fraudulent uh stealing of taxpayer

3:28dollars. Uh when when many people in the

3:32government knew about it and turned a

3:34blind eye towards it. Um they’re now

3:37saying that Ilhan Omar who is of Somali

3:40descent and a member of the House of

3:42Representatives from that district now

3:44may have known about it or may have been

3:46involved. She certainly is here under

3:48false pretenses because as the president

3:50said, she married her brother to get

3:53here. So that’s the story, Mike. The

3:56stealing of of somewhere of several

3:58millions, maybe as much as $250 million

4:01and sending it to terrorist groups in

4:02Somalia and various politicians being

4:06aware of the graph, the fraud, and the

4:08corruption and doing nothing about it.

4:11Yeah, I guess that pretty much sums up

4:14that for this week. Let’s try another

4:16one here.

4:19So, we were talking about uh food stamps

4:21and SNAP the other day. Uh I was talking

4:24with my stepdaughter Genesis and she was

4:27pointing out about all the fraud that

4:30she knows about that goes around about

4:32it. And uh I guess that was kind of in

4:35the news too during the shutdown.

4:38And I told her, I said, “You know what

4:41struck me is there was 40ome million

4:43people on food stamps in the United

4:45States

4:46and population is like 330 million.

4:49That’s more than 10% of the US

4:50population.

4:52What do you what do you think about all

4:53that and the fraud? And is there any way

4:56that we can clean this up?”

4:59you know, Mike, there is, but it

5:02requires a, you know, a spine by the

5:05government organizations that are in

5:06charge of these benefits. And

5:08unfortunately, most government workers

5:10don’t have a spine. And and that’s

5:12because they don’t want to face the

5:14wrath of the demonstrations that go

5:16along with it. You know, typically what

5:18happens, the easiest fraud in the world

5:20to per perpetuate is is to sign up for

5:24your SNAP card and you get a certain

5:26amount of benefits based on need in your

5:28SNAP card and that you don’t even have

5:31to go collect the money. They simply

5:33electronically re refill if you will uh

5:36your SNAP card with the amount of

5:38benefits. So what happens is um and this

5:41is especially true for young men who are

5:45able-bodied and of working age. You know

5:48typically a woman who has two kids and

5:51gets a SNAP benefit card, she’s

5:53responsible for feeding those kids and

5:56um so there’s a pretty good likelihood

5:58she’s going to buy groceries with those

6:00because she has nowhere else to get the

6:03the food she needs for her children. But

6:05you have these young able-bodied men and

6:08women who qualify for these SNAP

6:10benefits and they get the refill on

6:12their card and they go to these small

6:15independent grocery stores and what they

6:17do is they trade whatever amount of

6:19money is on electronically on that card.

6:22Let’s say that it’s $800. Okay? They go

6:25to this small independent grocery. They

6:27they they charge the $800

6:31uh at the grocery store, the little

6:33independent grocery store, and don’t

6:35take any merchandise out, and the

6:38shopkeeper gives them $200 or $300 in

6:40cash out of the cash register in

6:42exchange for the $600 or $800 worth of

6:45SNAP digital dollar benefits. Right.

6:48Right.

6:48So, the small grocery store makes a

6:50really nice killing. They get a $600 in

6:53their bank account and out of the till

6:55out of the out of out of the cash

6:57register they turn they they have to

6:58turn out $200 or $300. So they’re making

7:01a 50% profit. Right.

7:03Right.

7:03And the able-bodied person who takes the

7:06cash, they go to the casino or they go

7:09to the drug dealer and buy drugs with it

7:10or whatever. So what it what happens is

7:13America uses these benefits that are

7:17meant for as a safety net for those

7:19truly in need and we give it to people

7:21who are not truly in need and they trade

7:24it for all these um various things that

7:27are just ridiculous for this American

7:29tax to be paying for. By the way, it I

7:32don’t know if you’re aware of this, but

7:34Amazon um all these online whole food,

7:37you know, all these people use um SNAP

7:40benefit now for their groceries. You can

7:42buy groceries online.

7:44Yeah.

7:44From Amazon or any of these other online

7:46people and use your SNAP benefit card

7:49and you can buy things like sirloin

7:52steak, top round t-bone, you know,

7:55caviar,

7:57lobsters. You can buy all of those

7:59things which are really food. I mean it

8:02qualifies. It’s food. But somehow

8:05somebody using SNAP benefits to buy

8:08steak and lobster seems somehow like

8:10that’s inappropriate. You know, if if um

8:15if you have a real need for the basic

8:17elements of nutrition for yourself or

8:20your family, you know, you you’re buying

8:22hamburger, hot dogs, and some uh some

8:25cereal. You’re milk, bread, and eggs.

8:27You know what I’m saying?

8:28Yeah.

8:28And some of these other things that they

8:30purchase are just I mean it’s just

8:32waste, fraud, and abuse. You know,

8:33remember when Doge was up there and Doge

8:35was going to fix all this?

8:37Doge fell short. And again, government

8:39doesn’t have the will. They don’t have

8:41the willpower to uh to stop this fraud.

8:45I’m not sure they have the uh ability.

8:48Uh we had workfare in Pennsylvania many

8:50years ago and they had to cancel that

8:53because it costs more money to hire

8:55people to oversee the program to make

8:58sure there wasn’t fraud than there was

9:00to just let the fraud continue. It’s

9:02like uh what what’s that called? Uh

9:07double-edged sword type thing. It’s it’s

9:09just uh it’s a shame that’s what we’ve

9:11come to in America.

9:12You know what, Mike? When a 26-year-old

9:14able-bodied man with no physical

9:16difficulties, no handicap, shows up and

9:18gets a benefit from from SNAP, uh, $6 or

9:21$800 a month, he can go work at the

9:23local convenience store and make enough

9:25money to take care of himself. There’s

9:27no able-bodied man in America that

9:30should be getting that kind of benefit

9:31for free from the American taxpayer.

9:32Just isn’t.