Speaker 1: TXY around. This is the seventy seven WABC Mini cast.
Speaker 2: Well calling in today is Senator Eric Schmidt from the
Speaker 2: great State of Missouri, and he was the Attorney General
Speaker 2: for many years before becoming the United States Senator. Well,
Speaker 2: Senator you you were always looking out for our listeners,
Speaker 2: or consumers, or our taxpayers. There's so much fraud going on.
Speaker 2: I've been scratching my head. I'm getting a bold spot.
Speaker 2: Tell me, give me an update, give all our listeners
Speaker 2: an update. What the heck is going on?
Speaker 1: Well, I think the good news, John Well, the bad
Speaker 1: news is there's fraud happening all across this country that's
Speaker 1: costing taxpayers trillions of dollars in taking money away and
Speaker 1: services away from people who need it the most. The
Speaker 1: good news is we have an administration now that is
Speaker 1: very focused on taking on fraud across this country. I
Speaker 1: was at a round table with the vice president vice
Speaker 1: president of VANCE earlier this week. We talked about sort
Speaker 1: of progress that's being made. I met with the new
Speaker 1: attorney and the Justice Department that this is his focus,
Speaker 1: going around the country working with US attorneys, and I
Speaker 1: think that's what you need. You need a Department of
Speaker 1: Justice and administration that is held in on taking on
Speaker 1: this rampant fraud. And I think it came into full
Speaker 1: view for the American people at the beginning of this
Speaker 1: year when they saw, you know, this Somali enclave in
Speaker 1: Minneapolis that had all these fake daycare centers that were
Speaker 1: builking taxpayers millions and millions and millions of dollars, and
Speaker 1: nobody was there, you know, and it was actually like
Speaker 1: an independent It was just this Nick Shirley guy going
Speaker 1: around with his own camera and covering this, you know.
Speaker 1: And we've seen more of that in places like California,
Speaker 1: and I think that, like I said, the real challenge
Speaker 1: here is not only is an insult and costing trillions
Speaker 1: of dollars to taxpayers. I think of the guy you
Speaker 1: know in Missouri that's swinging the hammer, or the construction
Speaker 1: guy in New York that's just working his ass off
Speaker 1: every day, working over time, seven days a week to
Speaker 1: make ends meet. It's infuriating for that guy to know
Speaker 1: that there's somebody, you know, like, w We've just came
Speaker 1: over here from Somalia created this scheme, got rich and
Speaker 1: off the taxpayers. I mean, that is infuriating. So I
Speaker 1: just think we have to have a laser like focus.
Speaker 1: We're seeing that from this administration. I think this is
Speaker 1: a good result. You mentioned my time as Attorney general.
Speaker 1: We were very focused on taking on fraud, taking on
Speaker 1: violent crime. That is what the focus of the Justice
Speaker 1: Department should be, not this weaponization we saw on the
Speaker 1: Biden administration where they were going after Catholics, and they
Speaker 1: were going after parents who show up at school board
Speaker 1: meetings under the Patriot Act. They were going after political enemies.
Speaker 1: They tried to put President Trump in jail for the
Speaker 1: rest of his life. You saw it unfold there in
Speaker 1: New York, even with Alvin Bragg. This law fair, That
Speaker 1: isn't what the American people want. They want, you know,
Speaker 1: law and order. They want people put away who commit
Speaker 1: violent crimes, and they want these fraudsters to go to
Speaker 1: jail too.
Speaker 2: We want honesty and integrity. Now, we had doctor oz
Speaker 2: on the other day and he talked about the amount
Speaker 2: of fraud going on, especially in the medicaid the field
Speaker 2: uh in. But does any of them go to jail?
Speaker 1: You know, for a long time, John, there are people
Speaker 1: that if the fraud was under a million dollars, were
Speaker 1: never at risk of going to jail. I think that's crazy.
Speaker 1: I think we have to stiffen the penalties. We got
Speaker 1: to enforce the laws we have. I'm working on legislation
Speaker 1: that would stiff in these penalties. People should go to
Speaker 1: jail for a long time if they're doing this. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is just like I said, it's it's robbery from
Speaker 1: hard working folks. And and the other the other aspect
Speaker 1: of this is there are people who these these programs
Speaker 1: are intended to help who are robbed of those services too,
Speaker 1: you know, people with disabilities, those those who who can't
Speaker 1: help themselves that you know, the elderly or a homebound
Speaker 1: that that's what the intention of these of these of
Speaker 1: these programs were. And they're being you know, builked and
Speaker 1: robbed and shaken down by these fraudsters. And I think
Speaker 1: that's that's frustrating to a lot of people. I think
Speaker 1: that we ought to have greater expectations from the states
Speaker 1: right now. A lot of those dollars, those medicaid dollars, John,
Speaker 1: they just they go the check goes out from the
Speaker 1: federal government to the states and they and they have
Speaker 1: no idea if these people are alive or dead or
Speaker 1: fraud you know, defrauding that state. And so you know,
Speaker 1: we had, you know, in the Working Families Tax cut,
Speaker 1: the one big beautiful bill last year, some of the
Speaker 1: strongest anti fraud measures ever in this country. And now
Speaker 1: those can be enforced. And so you need you need
Speaker 1: better data, you need stiffer penalties, and you need the
Speaker 1: bandwidth of these prosecutors to go out and do their jobs.
Speaker 2: Now, some of the things I don't understand, especially uh,
Speaker 2: that state that's near you, Michigan. I mean, how can
Speaker 2: you elect a guy that is so anti American and
Speaker 2: get it? How can a guy like that get so
Speaker 2: many votes?
Speaker 1: It's wild? You know. I think for a while people
Speaker 1: were just dismissing this as a thing that was happening
Speaker 1: in some of the blue cities. But when somebody like
Speaker 1: that is elected in a Democrat primary in a state
Speaker 1: like Michigan, that is a wake up call. And I
Speaker 1: think that, you know, for a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 1: how is this possible? Well, you know, when you ship
Speaker 1: a lot of jobs overseas and then people who are
Speaker 1: left behind, like where I grew up, looking for jobs
Speaker 1: and those wages are suppressed through illegal immigration or a
Speaker 1: broken legal immigration system. Quite quite frankly, people get frustrated
Speaker 1: and that is what these socialists, these communists are tapping into.
Speaker 1: But they're just talking about redistributing existing resources, right and
Speaker 1: in opening up government grocery stores, which we know won't work.
Speaker 1: And really what we need is we need more jobs,
Speaker 1: we need more opportunity, we need more energy, we need
Speaker 1: more abundance. We need less scarcity, more abundance, and more
Speaker 1: prosperity for people. And that is what the competing visions are.
Speaker 1: It is really about less versus more. But it is
Speaker 1: it is wild. I think as a Republican, you know,
Speaker 1: you may want to say, hey, this is good for
Speaker 1: a matchup so we can draw contrast. Maybe that's true,
Speaker 1: But as an American, this is a this is a
Speaker 1: terrifying moment where you have these people who don't actually
Speaker 1: believe in America. They don't actually believe in free enterprise.
Speaker 1: They actually believe in the control that the government provide.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at Mndomi. He's talking about IDs in
Speaker 1: these government grocery stores, but doesn't want to have people
Speaker 1: to prove who they are when they vote, you know,
Speaker 1: like they want to flood this country with illegal immigrants,
Speaker 1: sign them up for benefits, get them dependent on the
Speaker 1: government and vote for them, because they have lost the
Speaker 1: case with the American people, the Americans out there that
Speaker 1: work hard, want a better life for the families. They've
Speaker 1: lost those arguments. So now they just want to bring
Speaker 1: more people in and get them dependent on the government
Speaker 1: or I guess you know, work on some of these
Speaker 1: scams we saw in Minneapolis, uh, and make them their voters.
Speaker 1: And we have to we have to be vigilant in
Speaker 1: fighting against that. It's always good to join you, John.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all you do and for all your listeners.
Speaker 1: Been on your show a bunch over the years. I
Speaker 1: just want everybody God bless everybody, and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we'll talk soon.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, senator, and thank you for everything
Speaker 2: you do for for America, and continue to speak out
Speaker 2: for everything and we'll catch up again. Thank you.