This week we covered the launch of the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, the states currently under federal investigation, and the Feeding Our Future scandal — $250 million stolen from a program that was supposed to feed hungry children.

A question worth sitting with: why did it take this long?

The Uncomfortable Answer

It took this long because fraud prosecution is politically costly when the fraudsters are associated with sympathetic causes or protected communities. Politicians who might have pushed harder for oversight worried about being accused of attacking nonprofits, cutting services, or targeting vulnerable groups. The path of least resistance was to look away — and for years, that is what happened.

Conservatives should reject that calculation completely. Accountability is not selective. The same principles that demand fiscal responsibility in government, honest dealing in business, and personal integrity in private life apply with full force to anyone stealing from public programs — regardless of who they are or which community they claim to represent.

What Faith Teaches About Theft

The moral framework most conservatives share is unambiguous on this point. Theft is wrong. Stealing from programs designed to help the poor is not a lesser offense because the ultimate source is government rather than an individual — it is arguably worse, because it betrays the trust of an entire society and harms the vulnerable people the program was meant to serve.

The Feeding Our Future defendants did not steal from bureaucrats. They stole from children. Every fraudulent meal claim was a real dollar that should have gone to a real hungry kid. That money is gone. The harm is real. The prosecution is just.

The same logic applies to every Medicaid phantom billing scheme, every fake unemployment claim, every fraudulent childcare subsidy. These are not victimless crimes. They are thefts from the most vulnerable, executed through programs that exist because Americans chose to be generous with their tax dollars.

The Whistleblower Opportunity

One genuinely encouraging development this week: the Trump administration and FinCEN have proposed paying whistleblowers 10 to 30 percent of recovered penalties for actionable tips on fraud. This is smart, conservative policy — it harnesses the self-interest of individuals with insider knowledge to expose crimes that government investigators might never find on their own.

If you know about fraud in a government program — in your workplace, your community, your organization — the system now has a meaningful financial incentive for you to come forward. Use it.

No Exceptions

The conservative position on fraud prosecution must be consistent. It cannot be reserved only for fraudsters who are politically disfavored. It must apply to contractors, nonprofits, corporations, government officials, and private individuals equally.

That consistency is what gives the principle its moral force. A justice system that prosecutes fraud selectively, based on political convenience, is not a justice system — it is a political weapon.

The NFED, the White House Task Force, and the federal investigations underway across the country represent a genuine attempt to build something better. Support it. Demand that it be applied evenhandedly. And hold this administration — and every future one — to that standard.

Accountability is not partisan. It is conservative to the core.