A gift for Vivek and Elon

President-Elect Trump fired a shot over several bows in DC  with his announcement of the the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) campaign headed by Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk.  The purpose of the DOGE is to call attention to government overreach that can either be reformed or eliminated.

If Elon and Vivek are looking for a good place to get started, we recommend the Child and Adult Care Food Program — which has been sucking up billions in tax dollars since 1968.  Here’s the program’s attempt to defend itself:

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a federal program that provides reimbursements for nutritious meals and snacks to eligible children and adults who are enrolled for care at participating child care centers, day care homes, and adult day care centers. CACFP also provides reimbursements for meals served to children and youth participating in afterschool care programs, children residing in emergency shelters, and adults over the age of 60 or living with a disability and enrolled in day care facilities. CACFP contributes to the wellness, healthy growth, and development of young children and adults in the United States.

Sounds nice, eh?  Critics of efforts to scale back, reform or eliminate this program might suggest that kids and old people won’t be fed if Vivek and Elon get their way.  But let’s stop and focus on the word reimbursement.   Reimbursement occurs when someone is paid back for money they’ve already spent.  Kids and old people will have already been fed. 

Here’s a story about a federal probe from 2022-ish where roughly 50 people in and around Minnesota were busted for defrauding CACFP — and American taxpayers — of roughly $250 million.  

(It’s hard to fathom how much of our money has been illicitly / improperly / incorrectly snatched over a 57 year period.)

Our examination of Balanced Nutrition – a Greensboro contracting firm run by Mark Robinson and his wife Yolanda Hill – exposed us to CACFP.  (The Robinsons’ firm got paid to pass along reimbursement with federal funds provided via NC DHHS to daycare owners.)  NC DHHS conducted a fiscal review of Balanced Nutrition for the first quarter of 2024.  The agency found enough irregularities via a review of those three months to demand that the Robinsons repay the state and feds more than $132,000.  (One can only imagine how much bigger that number would get following a review of Balanced Nutrition’s entire period of involvement with NC DHHS and CACFP.)

The last we heard about the probe of Balanced Nutrition came around October 12.  Here we are in November – two weeks after a gubernatorial election won by Democrat Josh Stein.  Things have grown eerily quiet over at Democrat-controlled NC DHHS.

We’re not convicting anyone in regard to Balanced Nutrition. At best, CACFP, Balanced Nutrition and other similar organizations are hot messes and spectacular symbols of government overreach and waste.   There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered.

The election is over, but that shouldn’t matter.  Protecting tax dollars should overrule every other concern.

Closer scrutiny of CACFP will likely turn up more awkward scenarios for Democrat voters than for any members of the MAGA crowd.  So, you can see why there might be some hesitancy.  Again, partisan concerns should not matter. It’s all about handling our tax dollars with more integrity than we’ve seen in a while.

(*Have at it, fellas.*)