00:00In just two months, we've exposed billions of dollars in benefits that have been stolen from the American people.
00:05We've referred over $22 billion in fraudulent small business loans back to the Treasury for collection.
00:11We've deferred more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements that were coming from various states, particularly California.
00:19We put a six-month hold on enrollments for new hospice and home health care providers
00:23because so many of the newer hospice providers were not actually providing hospice services,
00:28but we're just focused on fraud.
00:30So we're going to cut that out for a little bit and try to get to a place where we
00:34can actually certify
00:35that the people providing hospice services are actually providing those very necessary and important services.
00:40We've recovered taxpayer funds from the $135 billion stolen after the floodgates were open in the immediate aftermath of COVID.
00:48We have found $6.3 billion in suspected fraudulent government contracts,
00:53which were mostly awarded during the last administration, and that has stopped.
00:57And finally, we've blocked $60 million in student aid fraud that should have gone to young people
01:02trying to get an education, but instead we're going to fraudsters.
01:06And I think the theme here of the Anti-Fraud Task Force up to this point has really been that
01:11we're protecting
01:12two classes of victims here.
01:13We're protecting the American taxpayers who shouldn't have their money stolen by fraudsters,
01:17and of course we're protecting the people who need these services.
01:20Fraud is not a victimless crime.
01:22This is not somebody who gets to make some money for violating the law, and otherwise it's not a big
01:27deal.
01:28This is people who rely on critical services, students who rely on student loan services,
01:34sick people who rely on hospice care, a number of small businesses who rely on the availability of these loans
01:41so that they can grow their business and hire people.
01:43All of these people, all of our fellow Americans, have been taken advantage by fraudsters and the task force is
01:50here to stop it.
01:51All of the systems in our country, whether you're talking about voting, whether you're talking about entitlements,
01:57whether you're talking about welfare benefits, were set up based on the honor system.
02:02They're set up based on the idea that you could trust the average person through their own morality
02:07to abide by the rules and comply with the law.
02:10And so the way most welfare works in most states and most places is we take your word for it.
02:16If you fill out a piece of paper and you say your kids are hungry, you are going to get
02:20food stamps.
02:21We don't check as a country if you even have kids.
02:25The fact is basic as that.
02:27We don't even check if you even have children.
02:29You will just start getting the checks.
02:31And so what's happened to our country is we became a society, as we've seen with the Somali refugee problem
02:38in Minnesota,
02:39where you have a large number of people that are not following the honor system.
02:44They're not playing by the rules.
02:45They're not abiding by our laws.
02:46And the amount that has been fleeced from us is in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
02:51I believe, based on what I've seen and what I've heard, is that we could balance the federal budget
02:56if the only dollars that went out of the Treasury went to individuals who were properly, lawfully, correctly eligible to
03:05receive them.
03:06And that ultimately is going to be what we have to do as a country.
03:08In the meantime, because of the vice president's leadership, you are seeing the most muscular, robust, aggressive, dedicated, determined,
03:15and speedy effort to shut down criminal fraud that has not only ever occurred in the history of this country,
03:20but in any developed nation.
03:22So thank you.
03:23Thank you, Stephen.
03:24Colin.
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