WASHINGTON – Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL) joined The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on Premiere Networks to discuss the allegations of rampant fraud of the state of Minnesota
"I think that these hearings are going to be very revealing. Not just to what's happening in Minnesota, but to the real rot that goes on in these federal programs":
"Well, at this point, I know that committee staff is going through all the details. We're going to come back. We're going to get a briefing book on all this, and then we're going to start bringing in officials from the state of Minnesota. I think that these hearings are going to be very revealing. Not just to what's happening in Minnesota, but to the real rot that goes on in these federal programs. So, one, I'm very excited that we're finally having these hearings. I think they're overdue. Who needs to come in are Tim Walz and the Attorney General Keith Ellison. They need to come in and testify under oath about these things. But the third thing, one the investigations are done, we could go into the budget and we have to make sure that there are real audit controls around these programs if we're going to continue these programs. And I stress if because some of these programs really have no business being the responsibility of the federal government. These are legacy projects, legacy programs that have been in the budget for a long time. Hard to get them out of there, but we have to do the heavy lifting and get that done because we can't have situations where billions of dollars are being wasted, yet the American people are trying to scramble how to figure out how to make ends meet. It's atrocious. And so, yeah, I'm all for the hearings, but the real work is going to be in the budgetary process. We have a government funding deadline coming up January 30. I think that we need to have a full-court press on exposing all of this stuff and then call the Democrats, quite frankly, in the Senate. Call the Senate Democrats to the carpet. Are you going to actually reform spending in a meaningful way? Make sure there's real audits, real eligibility criteria put in because what most people don't know, a lot of these programs, these grants programs, there's no eligibility framework that you can audit. They have a general eligibility framework, but there's no teeth to it. We got to put teeth into these programs. Require real accountability in these programs. And then you have to be willing to turn they money off if there's elements of fraud. And that typically does not happen in a lot of these grant programs that come out of the federal government, and that needs to change."
"I don't think it's incompetency. I think it's complicity":
"My view or my gut tells me Minnesota is just the tip of the iceberg. And I don't think it's incompetency. I think it's complicity. I think you have elected officials from heavy blue states who allow for this malfeasance to occur because they get political payback on the backside."
