If you read this corner on any kind of regular basis, you will recall me saying that our friend, Donald Trump – well, maybe not always our friend, but anyway, Trump – likely knows a lot more about the financial situation of the US than almost all Americans. I wasn’t ever trying to make excuses for a guy who I can tolerate more than some of you, but I did think it was helpful in maybe understanding why he does some of the things he does.
You have probably noticed over the last several weeks, especially, the huge amounts of fraud that go on down there, which is likely one of the things that he has known about. Of course, it’s why he got Elon Musk to start that DOGE thing to try to get a handle on it.
Now in bringing this up, we needn’t think that some of that doesn’t go on up here in our innocent little country; I’m sure it does; we have our share of crooks too! But I don’t think it goes on to the extent that it does in the US. And now that we are seeing what has been going on in Minnesota, with the Dems in charge of the state government, and seemingly delighted that their population of illegal immigrants are welcome to fleece the government, we can only wonder how big the problem is.
Many of those who have had their hands into government coffers have been sending cash back to their home countries by the millions. Especially Somalia. So many that they can even elect Somalis to Congress. Isn’t that convenient! And you can be sure that they are filling the seats in local and state governments as well.
And many Americans are quite convinced that Minnesota is only a small part of what is going on. When you can rent a building and put a daycare sign on it and then apply for state and federal funding with absolutely nothing going on inside the premises, and get away with it, we can only imagine how much money might have been wasted.
So what was happening in California while this was going on? Of course, the same thing. And many other states as well. New Mexico, New York, even wealthy Massachusetts has its share of the bleeding.
So why do we care in Canada? Well, of course, we don’t care nearly as much as the taxpayer victims do across the border. A billion dollars of government money is probably more difficult to steal in Canada. But it’s well worth noticing, because if similar opportunities in thievery exist here, we can surely expect the same results. Especially if the border doors should open to the point where the professionals in that business were allowed into Canada.
It isn’t very far from Minnesota to our country. In fact, I have always been surprised that the worst state where this was occurring wasn’t New York, New Jersey or Illinois. Big states where organized crime has had its way for generations. But Minnesota? Yes, Minnesota. That’s enough to think that if it can happen there, it can just as well happen here.
When we see Trump on TV, it is a strange occasion when he doesn’t take a swipe at Joe Biden. Biden used to say that he was the best president in history. The only thing he was good at was ruining his country. The number of crooks and criminals that he let into the US with his open border policy is beyond counting. I acknowledge that Trump is far more hung up on himself than he needs to be, but I am also of the belief that he has done a lot to turn his country around. And reducing the fraud is one of the ways he’s doing it.
It’s a strange thing to be in the business of running a country when you know that many of the three hundred and fifty million people that you have pledged to protect and provide a path to prosperity for are stealing from the rest of the population and would steal more if they had a chance.
As you know, this is the month of the year that property owners get their property tax bills. That may not be your favourite time of the month, but it is at least a time when we see what is happening with our tax dollars. It’s spelled out pretty well on the tax bills. And I’m one who feels that our expenditures to government are some of the best deals that we get for our money.
Just think, we drive on our roads all the time, we send our kids to school, we have a medical system that we are well served by, we have income assistance programs for those who require it, we have utilities that provide many services, both from provincial and municipal governments, and the list goes on. It’s never a popular thing, perhaps to be saying that we enjoy paying taxes, and we likely do not enjoy paying them, but we surely do use those things that they provide us.
It’s a bit like buying an ice cream cone; we don’t like the paying, but we sure like the eating.
But just like our homes, meeting all the challenges we have can be difficult, but if we are having to carry the costs of criminal fraud activities that drain our government resources, it’s just that much more difficult. So we should learn from the Americans, watch what massive fraud can do to a country and do the best we can here in Canada to prevent it.
It is one of the problems that the US is struggling with and which has added to its national debt.
