HHS Freezing Child Care Funds In Minnesota Over Fraud Claims
HHS Freezing Federal Child Care Funds In Minnesota Over Unverified Fraud Claims
The Trump administration will really use any excuse it can find to make sure that kids go without proper care. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it would be withholding federal child care funds from Minnesota after a conservative influencer posted a video claiming Somali communities were committing child care fraud.
According to ABC News, conservative influencer Nick Shirley uploaded a video to his YouTube channel over the weekend that he claimed exposed fraud by Somali child care facilities in Minnesota. Since the video is a white man claiming that an immigrant community is committing fraud, it quickly went viral among Republican politicians, with even Vice President JD Vance reposting it. HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill even cited Shirley’s video in his social media post announcing the funding freeze, as well as stricter requirements for people and organizations to obtain federal child care funding.
Mind you, Shirley’s video is not a verified report, nor is it the culmination of a rigorous investigation. The video simply shows Shirley wandering around, going to child care facilities that he claims are committing fraud, and demanding to be let in. It’s not clear if he went during their regular operating hours, and quite frankly, I don’t think any responsible child care facility would just let some random man with a camera wander in after demanding to see some kids.
Of course, it’s not surprising that the party that tried to bury the Epstein files applauds this kind of behavior.
“This is Trump’s long game. We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue – but this has been his plan all along. He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement posted to social media. This is not the first time the federal government has withheld child care funds, as the Trump administration used the government shutdown as an excuse to not fund SNAP benefits and after-school programs.
Tikki Brown, the commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, acknowledged Shirley’s claims but took issue with the techniques he used. “While we have questions about some of the methods that were used in the video, we do take the concerns that the video raises about fraud very seriously,” Brown said on Monday.
“Each of the facilities mentioned in the video has been visited at least once in the last six months as part of our typical licensing process, and in fact, our staff are out in the community today to visit each of these sites again so that we can look into the concerns that were raised in the video,” she added.
Here’s the thing: if there is fraud, go after the people committing the fraud. Withholding child care funds from people and organizations who have literally nothing to do with this is cruel and downright lazy. Though cruel and lazy is the conservative M.O. these days, so I shouldn’t be shocked.
If I’m keeping it completely a buck, I don’t even care if they are defrauding the government. I’m watching in real time as President Donald Trump uses the office to enrich himself and his friends personally. When we start holding Trump to the same standard as Somali immigrants, then perhaps I can muster some degree of outrage.
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