Oct 1, 2026 · 56 min · 12 segments
What happens when fraud estimates, improper payments, and proven theft get treated as the same thing? Minnesota’s fraud debate demands accountability—and a closer look at the evidence behind the…
Christy BranhamHostRenee RyanHostAnd like we said before, you're so gracious to compliment us in our research and your MnPost piece.
Was there anything in the legislative history that changed or sharpened your understanding of the big picture?
Yeah, I knew instinctively from all my years covering the legislature that there had to be shared responsibility for things, mainly because in the last 16 years of DFL control, Republicans have only had, I think, two bienniums of trifecta.
Which means that 12 out of those 16 years, Republicans were in control of the House or Senate oversight committees, human services, et cetera, with responsibility for oversight.
And what you did with your piece was was just painstakingly show exactly how it happened.
you know, the other thing that you, that you hit on is that conservatives for years have been trying to shrink state government and privatize functions or delegate that responsibility to other players, many of whom make a profit when they do it.
Um, and so, you know, this is a thousand points of light that George Herbert Walker Bush hailed as the answer to our problems.
Um, and, um, But in addition to you folks, I don't know, I'm sure you've seen David Schultz's piece.
I think it was in the Minneapolis Tribune, which is kind of an online paper, and it's kind of crabby centrist folks.
But he really did do a good job also of delineating some shared responsibility for it going back many decades.
So, yeah, I think it was a really important thing that you added there, and congratulations for it.
But we wanted to actually shine a light on the fact that had the Republicans not set the stage for it, perhaps it wouldn't have been able to happen at this scale.
And like we said before, you're so gracious to compliment us in our research and your MnPost piece.
Was there anything in the legislative history that changed or sharpened your understanding of the big picture?
Yeah, I knew instinctively from all my years covering the legislature that there had to be shared responsibility for things, mainly because in the last 16 years of DFL control, Republicans have only had, I think, two bienniums of trifecta.
Which means that 12 out of those 16 years, Republicans were in control of the House or Senate oversight committees, human services, et cetera, with responsibility for oversight.
And what you did with your piece was was just painstakingly show exactly how it happened.
you know, the other thing that you, that you hit on is that conservatives for years have been trying to shrink state government and privatize functions or delegate that responsibility to other players, many of whom make a profit when they do it.
Um, and so, you know, this is a thousand points of light that George Herbert Walker Bush hailed as the answer to our problems.
Um, and, um, But in addition to you folks, I don't know, I'm sure you've seen David Schultz's piece.
I think it was in the Minneapolis Tribune, which is kind of an online paper, and it's kind of crabby centrist folks.
But he really did do a good job also of delineating some shared responsibility for it going back many decades.
So, yeah, I think it was a really important thing that you added there, and congratulations for it.
But we wanted to actually shine a light on the fact that had the Republicans not set the stage for it, perhaps it wouldn't have been able to happen at this scale.
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