Worried about welfare fraud? Sleep easy.
House Minority Leader Rep. Marty Seifert and the Minnesota Republican House Caucus are on the case for Minnesota's taxpayers.
They've discovered that cash withdrawals or purchases amounting to 0.000582% of the state's total "welfare" disbursements using the Electronic Benefit Transfer card have shown up in Hawaii. That's just under 23 bucks per transaction, for a total of $2,890.
Rep. Seifert demands an audit to get to the bottom of this outrage.
It's entirely possible that after auditors sort through the military spouses joining partners, kids visiting grandparents and non-custodial parents, families attending funerals, people moving out of state and using the month's remaining benefits, and Fargo and Stillwater residents dashing across the border, they will find that some welfare recipients do indeed go on vacation. And that some cards have been sold, lent or stolen.
But that's not the conclusion Seifert is really after with: "Where is your welfare money going?" [Emphasis mine and theirs]. His campaign against fraud, waste and abuse depends on a vague grasp of public assistance programs (believe me, it's complex) and feeds on resentment of those who receive help.
Then, with no supporting evidence at all, he delivers his real message: It's fault of the DFL-majority legislature.
Never mind that the Department of Human Services reports to Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty and it is administered by former GOP state rep Cal Ludeman. Seifert was able to get all this data from Ludeman's department, which is obviously tracking card use already and doesn't see this as a significant problem.
Disregard the fact that much of this money flows from the federal government for food support to poor families with children. Yes, it's still "your" tax dollar, but making some state legislators responsible for how a state agency distributes federal dollars is a bit of a stretch.
Forget for a moment that the amount flowing out of state via the Electronic Benefit Transfer card is only about 2 percent of the total — about the same percentage built into the price you pay every time you use a credit card with a merchant. The card streamlines payments, provides added security and permits the very sort of detailed tracking Seifert tries to turn to his political advantage.
And don't even consider that Seifert's colorful map graphic [click to enlarge] is calculated to overstate the problem by plotting small amounts of money across a large geographic area. If he'd used a bar chart, it would look like this.
No, the caucus wants everyone to understand this is about government accountability, not demonizing poor families.
“There is a financial responsibility on behalf of the State of Minnesota to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not being abused,” said Representative Laura Brod. “The welfare system is growing exponentially and receiving a greater share of the state’s budget. We want to take care of families in need but also ensure that no one is abusing the system for their own financial gain at the expense of Minnesota families struggling to pay their own bills."
Rep. Brod is correct that human services spending (rather loosely "welfare") is a growing share of the budget. The overall general fund line item for the current two-year budget is up to 27.9% versus 25.8% for the 2004-05 biennium. Two points, of course, is not growing "exponentially" in a mathematical sense, but the GOP case isn't really built on actual math.
If you look at where Minnesota's total state and local public welfare spending is relative to other states, according to the Minnesota Taxpayers Association, our rank has held steady. In other words, the growth in spending is in part due to changes affecting all states, including changing federal programs, inflation and growing population.
Today Minnesota pays about half the amount in benefits it did through the Minnesota Family Investment Program in 1998, following nationwide welfare reforms. On the other hand, we all have a growing piece of a federal budget deficit that will reach $482 billion next year, plus another $80 billion in war costs.
If only U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and his permanent subcommittee on investigations were as conscientious looking into how our federal credit card is being used!
