The Democrat Party may not have invented political corruption, but they have perfected and exported it throughout Blue states over the last 125 years. As the party of government, they have dispensed taxpayer-funded jobs, benefits, and contracts as if they were gods from the very beginning of their Party while looking the other way on fraud that benefits them directly.
This is Part III of a multi-part series that is examining the premise that the Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise that has been robbing taxpayers blind for well over one hundred years and has been perfecting election fraud mechanisms that are intended to establish and perpetuate Democrat political hegemony across the fruited plain.
Part I summarized major Democrat Party fraud from 1900 through 1960. Part II summarized major Democrat fraud from 1960 through 2000, and how it has grown in scope, complexity, and enormity, and an estimate of total cost of the fraud to US taxpayers.
This part completes most of the historical summary of major Democrat fraud from 2000 through the present, with a focus on the revelations in Minnesota, and gives a sniff of what is to come in the series.
Here we go.
DEMOCRAT PARTY CORRUPTION CIRCA 2000 THROUGH THE PRESENT
Parts I and II of the series showed how major Democrat fraud started with patronage jobs and grew to include money-laundering, bribery, influence peddling, and illegal foreign campaign contributions. In parallel, the welfare state grew by leaps and bounds courtesy of the Great Society programs. SNAP, Medicaid, daycare, and other taxpayer-funded “services” provided sources of taxpayer funds that were ripe for fraud. Poor administration and fraud enforcement as these programs were initiated set the table for significant fraud, with the occasional headline of fraudsters having been captured through sting operations by the FBI and state agencies.
Some of the major Democrat fraud is grouped by decade below.
2000s: State-Level Machines and Federal Probes; Welfare Fraud
During this decade, Democrat strongholds like Illinois and New Jersey were investigated for allegations of patronage and bribery.
- In 2009, following Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s (D-IL) arrest, Republican commentators like Sean Hannity called the Illinois Democratic Party a “criminal machine” for selling Obama’s Senate seat, citing FBI tapes.
- Conservative outlets like Fox News (2008) accused the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee of being a “corrupt enterprise” amid Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-LA) bribery conviction (cash in freezer).
- In 2007, amid the Milberg Weiss law firm scandal (Democratic donors pleading guilty to kickbacks), The New York Times opinion pieces echoed Republican claims of the party as a “pay-for-play syndicate.”
Detected fraud rates declined with technology advances, with SNAP fraud estimated at ~1% by mid-decade. The focus shifted to identity theft and overpayments. Nevertheless, the fraud continued:
- Improper payments in Medicaid rose with expansions of the program in all states. There were ~$567 billion improper Medicaid payments over decade (including errors), and the program was marked as a high-risk for fraud per the GAO.
- There were ~143,385 allegations of Social Security fraud (fake SSNs) in 2016.
- Some of the first instances of Day Care (Child Care and Development Fund) fraud were discovered in San Diego and elsewhere, including overbilling schemes with a ~50% fraud rate alleged in some reports.
2010s: Madigan, Menendez, and “Deep State” Rhetoric; Sophisticated Welfare Fraud
During this decade, accusations from Democrat critics intensified with federal indictments and Trump’s claims of Democrat corruption in government institutions.
- In 2019, following Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-NJ) bribery trial (mistrial, but accused of gold bars and favors), Trump called the Democratic Party a “corrupt mob” protecting its own.
- US Attorney John Lausch, in 2022 (reflecting 2010s probes), indicted Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D) for running a “criminal enterprise” via racketeering and bribery with ComEd.
- President Trump, in 2018 rallies, labeled Democrats the “party of crime,” accusing them of a “deep state conspiracy” to undermine his administration, echoed by Fox News commentators.
During this decade, welfare fraud continued apace. Known SNAP trafficking fraud was estimated at ~1.5%. The Minnesota scandals emerged in 2018. Total government-wide improper payments were estimated at ~$2.8 trillion (!) since 2003. Of note:
- Under SNAP, Baltimore retailers defrauded $16 million; Cincinnati $3.4 million; Fresno $5 million. There were more, and there were ~45,000 disqualifications for fraud in 2014 alone. U
- Under Medicaid, some $567 billion improper payments were made. There were housing aid fraud raids made in Minnesota in 2015.
- Under Social Security, there were 143,385 fraud allegations made in 2016 alone resulting in 1,162 convictions for a savings to taxpayers of $355.7 million.
- Under Daycare (CCDF), Minnesota Somali centers overbilled $100+ million through kickbacks and ghost children.
2020s: Norcross, Adams, and Ongoing Probes; Welfare Fraud on Steroids
Recent years saw high-profile indictments, with conservatives amplifying claims of systemic Democratic corruption.
- In 2024, NJ Attorney General Matt Platkin indicted power broker George Norcross (D) for leading a “criminal enterprise” in racketeering, extorting Camden properties (later dismissed).
- President Trump, in 2024 speeches, called the Democratic Party a “crime syndicate” amid NYC Mayor Eric Adams’s (D) indictment for bribery and wire fraud.
- Conservative commentator Deroy Murdock, on Fox Business (2025), stated “the Democratic Party has really become the party of crime,” citing urban violence and scandals like Menendez’s 2024 conviction.
In parallel, welfare fraud in this decade moved in new directions, as fraudsters took advantage of the gold mine created by an avalanche of federal during and subsequent to the COVID plandemic (not a misspelling!). Note that federal spending levels that were dramatically increased because of COVID have never been reduced to pre-COVID levels. Where did all that money go since the plandemic was exposed as a scam by 2022? A lot of it went to fraud, as we are finding out. The plandemic amplified the fraud, e.g., $250+ million uncovered in Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future fraud network. Total benefits fraud convictions are up 242% since 2020. HHS froze $10 billion in 5 states (2026) over alleged systemic issues with state welfare fraud administration. And more:
- Under the SNAP, ongoing retailer schemes to defraud taxpyers continued, and skimming/phishing rose.
- Medicaid. In Minnesota alone, some $9+ billion potential fraud was discovered with as much as $31 billion in improper payments made nationwide.
- Some 489,636 allegations of Social Security fraud were made in 2020 alone, leading to 937 convictions, and a median loss to taxpayers per case of $137,600.
- Under the Daycare (CCDF) programs, the Minnesota Feeding Our Future scam defrauded taxpayers of $250 million (2020-2022). There was $3.7 in overbilling (fraud) discovered in California in 2023. Additional daycare centers in Minnesota are estimated to have defrauded taxpayers of $100+ million (ongoing investigations).
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Parts I through III of this series have given readers a taste of the fraud perpetrated by the Democrat Party (and some Republicans) on the American people over the last 125+ years. Most Americans are unaware of the massive defrauding of US taxpayers that has been going on under their noses for decades. While there are a few occasional splashes in the legacy media about fraudsters being tried and convicted for theft, many have been seduced by these reports into believing that the fraud is small dollars, and that the fraud monitors are diligently accomplishing their missions, and that supposed “good works” associated with all these welfare programs are worth the fraud this is uncovered from time to time. Others have probably convinced themselves that these fraud cases are simply the price of doing business with inefficient government bureaucracies.
As we are beginning to find out in Minnesota, nothing could be further from the truth. Much of the fraud uncovered recently in Minnesota was detailed in a previous Substack post entitled “What to Do about the Massive Defrauding of Taxpayers” that can be found here. The numbers are shocking! What was not included in that post was a description of what is almost certainly the hub of the fraud network in Minnesota, as well as how those networks are interconnected to form a vast array of billing schemes for defrauding taxpayers.
That hub and more will be covered in Part IV of this series, and maybe I will be able to finally get to how the system was rigged over time to facilitate the fraud (which I had intended to discuss in this part but ran out of word count). I hope to show the connections of these fraud networks to systemic Democrat election fraud, too, if ever I get to the bottom of the well of Democrat fraud (which might take a couple of more parts of the series!). Think about fraud kickbacks from NGOs administering the welfare programs for the government and the fraudsters themselves to Arabella and Act Blue for starters. The more I dig into all of this, the more that I am finding that needs to be exposed and discussed!
Stay tuned….
The end.