Washington Post calls for stricter SNAP qualifications, widespread fraud crackdown after Minnesota scandal

The Washington Post editorial board called on the Trump administration to press for "meaningful reform" of the country's entitlement programs, specifically the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), after independent journalist Nick Shirley recently exposed over $100 million of fraud allegedly taking place in Minnesota's daycare system.

In an editorial Wednesday, the outlet said Shirley's investigation led to Minnesota's Somali fraud scandal finally piercing the national consciousness, quipping that such a "spirit of scrupulousness would have been nice a few billion tax dollars ago."

"As America’s welfare state has ballooned to more than 80 major federal programs, they’ve become a target-rich environment for alleged scam artists like those in Minneapolis. Walz’s boondoggle underlines the need for serious reforms across America," the Post argued. 

"Too bad that too many progressive leaders are lackadaisical at best about cracking down on fraud and errors, lest it curtail social services."

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The editorial board contended that this nonchalant attitude toward cracking down on fraud is "especially true when it comes to open-ended entitlement programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program."

Several Democratic states, the Post noted, have sued to block the Trump administration's efforts to "root out waste and fraud" by threatening to cut off SNAP funding to states that refuse to share recipient data, including immigration status.

The outlet added that it's still unclear whether the Trump administration could legally cut off the funding, adding that blue states won a preliminary injunction in October that temporarily blocked the request.

"The truth is that SNAP doesn’t just help the hungry," the Post asserted. "It had the fourth highest rate of documented fraud across all federal programs from 2018 to 2022, coming in at $10.5 billion."

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As noted by the Post, Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey criticized the administration's approach, saying President Donald Trump is "playing politics with the ability of working parents with children, seniors and people with disabilities to get food."

The outlet countered that concern by pointing to the state's own record, noting that "Massachusetts had a 14 percent error rate on SNAP payments in fiscal year 2024 — the seventh highest in the country," and that, nationwide, "overpayments represented a larger share of the error rate than underpayments."

"The tax bill passed in July requires states with an error rate over 6 percent to pay for up to 15 percent of the costs of benefits come 2028. A two year buffer was put in place to give states with high error rates, like Alaska, extra time to get their acts together — but why should the worst offenders get special treatment?" the editorial board asked. 

"The left claims Trump wants Americans to go hungry, but if an individual shouldn’t be eligible for food stamps in the first place, where’s the cruelty in making sure benefits go to someone who is?"

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The Post reiterated that while "states clearly need to do better jobs of vetting welfare beneficiaries," the Trump administration has an "opportunity to press for meaningful reform." 

However, it warned that it would be a mistake to "squander it by using waste and fraud as an excuse to make inefficient cuts or to use beneficiary data to fuel a mass deportation crusade."

After Shirley’s video alleging rampant fraud in Minnesota’s daycare system went viral, the Post said the Trump administration used the momentum to justify freezing all childcare payments to the state. The outlet warned that fully eliminating the safety net would "hurt more than just fraudsters."

Instead of freezing all childcare payments to the state, the editorial board said the federal government should "champion reforms that incentivize more responsible spending, such as block grants," arguing that by offering a fixed amount of funding, "Washington could encourage states to spend more carefully and vet recipients more thoroughly."

"Social safety nets crumble when most taxpayers feel like welfare money goes to undeserving people. The purpose of entitlements is not to spend as much as possible. It is to make sure the truly vulnerable get the help they need without becoming dependent on government handouts. Scrutinizing food stamp rolls is a small step in that direction," the Post concluded.