Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Catch a Crook, Get Paid: Trump is Coming for the Grifters, with Your Help

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Catch a Crook, Get Paid: Trump is Coming for the Grifters, with Your Help · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So here's what we're going to be doing. Anybody that
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: can prove that he turned somebody in, in other words,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: he or she, if you turn somebody in and you,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: let's say, report and you find a billion dollars, we
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: are giving a commission to that person of One percent.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: A lot of money.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Good Wednesday morning. It's so nice to have you with
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: us on the 47 Morning Update. And we've got a
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: massive story for you. Donald Trump has put a bounty
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  Speaker 3: on government fraud. exposing the crooks, and he says if
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  Speaker 3: you do it, you're going to get paid big time.
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  Speaker 3: So what is this new program all about, and how
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  Speaker 3: do you get paid if you know about fraud that
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  Speaker 3: you can expose? We break it all down for you.
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  Speaker 3: But before we get to that, the stakes right now
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  Speaker 3: and administration fighting hard for America first. Now, if conservatives
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• 1:00
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• 1:04
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• 1:09
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• 2:29
  Speaker 3: It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 2: Story number one.
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  Speaker 3: President Donald Trump just sent a message to every fraudster,
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  Speaker 3: every crooked government contractor. and every individual stealing taxpayer dollars,
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  Speaker 3: and every organization abusing government assistant programs as well. Your
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  Speaker 3: days of stealing from the American taxpayer without consequences may
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  Speaker 3: be coming to an end. And here's the brilliant part.
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  Speaker 3: The president isn't just telling the Justice Department to investigate fraud.
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  Speaker 3: He's telling the American people, help us catch the crooks
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  Speaker 3: and we'll pay you. That's right. President Donald Trump announced
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  Speaker 3: a brand new $ 25 million fraud whistleblower into the program.
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  Speaker 3: And standing right there in the Oval Office alongside President
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  Speaker 3: Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance was 24-year-old independent journalist,
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  Speaker 3: a guy by the name of Nick Shirley. Now, you
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  Speaker 3: remember Nick Shirley. He's that young man who went into
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  Speaker 3: Minnesota with a camera and started asking some very simple
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  Speaker 3: questions about daycare centers, receiving millions of dollars in taxpayer funding.
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  Speaker 3: Where are the children, he asks? Where's the money going?
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  Speaker 3: Are taxpayers actually getting what they're paying for? And his
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  Speaker 3: reporting helped bring national attention to serious allegations of widespread
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  Speaker 3: massive fraud, something the mainstream media refused to do. So
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  Speaker 3: this 24-year-old did it himself. Well, today, Nick Shirley was
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  Speaker 3: recognized by President of the United States of America, awarding
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  Speaker 3: him with $ 10, 000. Now, think about the message that that sends.
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  Speaker 3: Instead of ignoring someone who raises questions about government spending,
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  Speaker 3: the president recognized him. Instead of discouraging Americans from exposing
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  Speaker 3: the fraud that we all know is there, Donald Trump
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  Speaker 3: is offering financial incentives to help uncover it. And I
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  Speaker 3: think this is one of the smartest ideas we've seen
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  Speaker 3: come out of Washington in a very long time. Because
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  Speaker 3: here's the question that I've been asking. Why should criminals
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  Speaker 3: be the only ones making money from government fraud, right?
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  Speaker 3: Why not reward the people who helped stop it? Well,
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  Speaker 3: the president's new fraud program, let's talk about what he said.
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  Speaker 3: It is called the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, or WIPP.
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  Speaker 3: The Treasury Department is committing $ 25 million to support the program,
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  Speaker 3: which will be administered by the Department of Justice. How
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  Speaker 3: does it work? Well, here's the president in his own words.
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  Speaker 1: So today I'm thrilled to announce the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program.
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  Speaker 1: Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program. And mark those words. Independent journalists
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  Speaker 1: and everybody and all Americans will now be able to
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  Speaker 1: go to the fraud.gov and report cases of corruption and
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  Speaker 1: theft of taxpayer dollars in their communities, all via a
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  Speaker 1: new website created by Joe Gebbia, who's fantastic, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: and the team at the National Design Studio. Everything Joe's
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  Speaker 1: done has been a big success for us. So here's
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  Speaker 1: what we're going to be doing. Anybody that can.
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  Speaker 1: Prove that he turned somebody in. In other words, he
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  Speaker 1: or she. If you turn somebody in and you, let's say,
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  Speaker 1: report and you find a billion dollars, we are giving
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  Speaker 1: a commission to that person of 1%. It's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of money. And if it's 10 billion, 200 billion, 400 billion,
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  Speaker 1: we're giving... a 1 percent commission to that person. You
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  Speaker 1: have to prove that you were the one and prove
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  Speaker 1: that it was you. And I don't know if you
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  Speaker 1: can do this, but subject to the laws of our nation,
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  Speaker 1: which I feel very strongly about, if a reporter turns
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  Speaker 1: somebody in, you have to get approval, perhaps, from your
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  Speaker 1: wonderful newspaper. But if you turn somebody in, you get
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  Speaker 1: a 1 percent commission. You may turn it down or
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  Speaker 1: you may say, I'm not going to be a reporter
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  Speaker 1: any longer. This is too easy. So if a reporter
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  Speaker 1: Turn somebody in. We're going to continue the same 1%.
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  Speaker 1: So if somebody turns somebody in for a million dollars,
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  Speaker 1: but a million dollars is very small potatoes, you get
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  Speaker 1: a 1% commission subject to the rules of the nation,
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  Speaker 1: subject to all of the things. And we're going to
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  Speaker 1: elect the reporters for the first time in many cases
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  Speaker 1: in your lives. You've done a good job. Some are
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  Speaker 1: very professional journalists, but it's not... a very profitable thing
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  Speaker 1: to do, but it's a very important thing to do.
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  Speaker 1: Very few things are more important than good journalism. But
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  Speaker 1: we're going to, if they're allowed to do it, if
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  Speaker 1: you can get approval from your media outlet, whoever that
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  Speaker 1: may be, we're going to let the reporters partake because
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  Speaker 1: you know a lot of things that are happening, maybe
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  Speaker 1: many cases more than most others. So I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: add into that group of people, reporters. So if anybody
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  Speaker 1: turns anybody in, $ 1 billion, $ 5 billion, $ 100 billion, you
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  Speaker 1: get a 1% commission. And I think that will be
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  Speaker 1: amazing because the kind of money that's been stolen is
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  Speaker 1: trillions from this country by crooked politicians that made things
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  Speaker 1: and set things up, crooked attorney generals like we have
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  Speaker 1: in New York, like we have in Minnesota, like we have,
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  Speaker 1: I can name all of them, I can name all
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  Speaker 1: of them pretty much, This new incentive program will help
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  Speaker 1: expand the anti-fraud and corruption efforts of J.D.
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  Speaker 4: And his people.
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  Speaker 1: And they really are. They are amazing people. Smart. It's incredible.
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  Speaker 4: Without any incentive, the kind of money that they've already found,
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  Speaker 4: billions and billions of dollars, and save American taxpayers, it'll
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  Speaker 4: save trillions.
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  Speaker 1: I believe trillions.
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  Speaker 3: Now, you think about what the president just said there.
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  Speaker 3: You have someone that works at a daycare center where
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  Speaker 3: someone is billing the government for children who aren't there.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe you're an employee at a health care company that's
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  Speaker 3: submitting fraudulent Medicare claims. Maybe you know about a nonprofit
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  Speaker 3: organization receiving millions in taxpayer dollars while falsifying records. Or
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  Speaker 3: maybe you're a government employee who's watched money disappear for
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  Speaker 3: years while nobody in Washington seemed interested in doing anything
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  Speaker 3: about it. Now, there's a financial incentive to come forward.
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  Speaker 3: The Justice Department says qualifying whistleblowers can receive awards ranging
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  Speaker 3: from $ 10, 000 to $ 30, 000 for information that leads to criminal charges. Now,
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  Speaker 3: President Trump went even further during his Oval Office announcement,
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  Speaker 3: and he talked about giving whistleblowers a commission equal to 1%
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  Speaker 3: of the fraud they uncover. Now, if you think about
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  Speaker 3: that number, it's amazing. If somebody helps expose $ 100 million
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  Speaker 3: in fraud, well, 1% would be $ 1 million. Is that
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  Speaker 3: money well worth it? If you're exposing $ 100 million in
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  Speaker 3: government waste, fraud, and abuse, you better believe it. If
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  Speaker 3: somebody helps uncover a billion-dollar fraud scheme, 1%, by the way,
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  Speaker 3: would be $ 10 million. Is that money well spent? Yes,
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  Speaker 3: it is. Now, the Justice Department's published program currently describes
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  Speaker 3: awards up to 30,000. The president's larger 1% proposal goes
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  Speaker 3: beyond those published terms. But the administration says they're going
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  Speaker 3: to make sure that those larger payments will be able
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  Speaker 3: to work. And look, the president's larger point is clear.
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  Speaker 3: He wants Americans out. to now have a financial incentive
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  Speaker 3: to expose people stealing from taxpayers. And if you listen
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  Speaker 3: to the principle behind this, it is, well, very clear.
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  Speaker 3: If somebody helps the government recover millions of dollars that
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  Speaker 3: otherwise would have been stolen, why shouldn't that person share
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  Speaker 3: in those massive savings? Again, we're talking about 1% here.
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  Speaker 3: We're talking about money that belongs to the American people,
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  Speaker 3: money that comes out of our paychecks. And the other
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  Speaker 3: reason why I think the president's offering this 1%, as
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  Speaker 3: he describes it, is actually very simple. He wants there
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  Speaker 3: to be a big enough incentive that people are willing
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  Speaker 3: to expose massive fraud because the financial incentive is worth
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  Speaker 3: the risk of maybe their fear of, I don't know,
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  Speaker 3: losing their job. Now, all of this is important because
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  Speaker 3: we're talking about money that belongs to us. money that
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  Speaker 3: comes out of your small business, money that comes out
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  Speaker 3: of your paycheck, money that could have gone towards roads
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  Speaker 3: and better schools and national defense and veterans. Or here's
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  Speaker 3: an idea, actually lowering our taxes. But instead, what we've
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  Speaker 3: witnessed is criminals everywhere trying to find a way to
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  Speaker 3: exploit government programs, and they've gotten really good at it.
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  Speaker 3: And what the president's saying is, okay, How do we
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  Speaker 3: realistically stop this without incentivizing people? How do we get
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  Speaker 3: to the bottom of it quickly? How do we put
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  Speaker 3: the fear in fraudsters? Well, if you have a chance
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  Speaker 3: at a million dollars or $ 10 million exposing fraud, you
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  Speaker 3: better believe that's going to make the fraudsters think differently
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  Speaker 3: about what they're actually doing. Now, here's what makes today's
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  Speaker 3: announcement also extremely important. Look at how much fraud has
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  Speaker 3: already been exposed before this program ever existed. During the
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  Speaker 3: Oval Office announcement, the president says the administration has already
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  Speaker 3: uncovered $ 260 billion in fraud. That is the president's figure.
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  Speaker 3: And the administration, by the way, has talked about all
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  Speaker 3: of the different scenarios that are around this. And if
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  Speaker 3: you look at that number, what you see in simple
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  Speaker 3: places like Minnesota, where Nick Shirley found the fraud, you
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  Speaker 3: now have federal prosecutors that have uncovered massive fraud schemes
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  Speaker 3: involving the taxpayer-funded programs. That is a fact. Also, remember
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  Speaker 3: Feeding Our Future. That was that federal child nutrition program
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  Speaker 3: intended to feed hungry children during the COVID pandemic. Well,
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  Speaker 3: now prosecutors allege that participants fraudulently obtained more than $ 250
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  Speaker 3: million by submitting claims for meals that were never served. Y'all,
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  Speaker 3: that's a quarter of a billion dollars. Money intended to
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  Speaker 3: feed hungry children. And instead, according to federal prosecutors, criminals
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  Speaker 3: exploited the system to enrich themselves. There has been convictions
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  Speaker 3: and guilty pleas in that scandal. And Minnesota's problems didn't
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  Speaker 3: end there. And federal investigators have also examined the alleged
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  Speaker 3: fraud involving the autism services, the housing assistance, the Medicaid reimbursements,
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  Speaker 3: and other taxpayer-funded programs, all because Nick Shirley said, hey,
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  Speaker 3: look at my video, look what I found. And I'll
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  Speaker 3: say this again. There's one common thread here. All of
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  Speaker 3: these programs were supposedly designed to help the most vulnerable
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  Speaker 3: among us. talking about hungry children, families struggling to afford
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  Speaker 3: child care, people with disabilities, low-income Americans. And when someone
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  Speaker 3: steals money from those programs, they're not just stealing from taxpayers.
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  Speaker 3: They're stealing the resources that were intended to help people
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  Speaker 3: who genuinely needed help. And I go back to that
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  Speaker 3: point again. Imagine how much lower your taxes could be
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  Speaker 3: if we got rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse.
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  Speaker 3: That is the really important part of this conversation. president
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  Speaker 3: understands it and incentivizing people in a very big financial
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  Speaker 3: way to be a whistleblower to make that take that
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  Speaker 3: risk with your job to expose what you're seeing well
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  Speaker 3: it was going to take money to do it but
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  Speaker 3: the money being offered up is nothing compared to the
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  Speaker 3: money that's being stolen and that's why so many democrats
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: are afraid of this new donald trump initiative.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the 47 morning update with
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: ben ferguson Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're
• 14:28
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• 14:32
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• 14:35
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