Allen Jackson NOW

Good evening and welcome to Nashville, I’m Allen Jackson. Republicans gathered in Dallas for the party’s first-ever national midterm convention, with President Trump and administration officials making the case for keeping Republican control of Congress and laying out what they want to accomplish in the final two years of the administration.

The convention focused on issues ranging from taxes and healthcare costs to border security, energy, and crime. But one issue remains front and center: the administration’s crackdown on fraud. For years, Americans have heard politicians in Washington promise to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse. Yet the programs kept getting larger, and taxpayers were often left to discover only after the fact that billions of dollars had been lost to fraud and sheer government indifference.

The Trump administration is taking a different approach. Vice President J.D. Vance is now helping lead a broader federal anti-fraud effort. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is freezing more than a billion dollars in Medicaid funding to California and Minnesota, and Dr. Mehmet Oz says the government is no longer going to keep sending money out the door when the claims don’t add up.

That shouldn’t be controversial because fraud is theft. It’s stealing; it’s money taken from taxpayers. The laws already exist, the investigators already exist, and the warning signs have been there. So why do Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota show so little urgency to enforce the law?

This is not simply a management problem; it’s a question of moral clarity and political will. If other states can prosecute fraud aggressively, why can’t California and Minnesota? Now that the Trump administration is finally treating taxpayer fraud like the crime it is, how much money can be recovered, and how much accountability is still to come?

We’re living in a time when observable truth is often denied in the public square. It’s like the sun’s coming up in the east, and there’s some talking head with lots of letters at the end of their name going, "Actually, it comes up in the south." It’s disorienting. I’m grateful for the steps taken by our current administration to cut waste and fraud and to expose the looting of America. It’s stealing.

When I think about the people that have been elected to office, there’s a group of public servants that I despise. Despise is the kindest word I have. It’s not about political party. It doesn’t matter to me whether they’re Republican or Democrat. These elected officials have been given the authority to serve the people; it’s a sacred trust. The way I understand public service is that we go to Washington, D.C., or to our state capitals to represent our constituents, to bring a better outcome to whomever it is we’re representing, to be good representatives for that group of people.

I suppose the old-fashioned term for that was statesman—the expectation that the elected official will go with the good of their constituents as the primary component of their decision-making. But far too many politicians have had their snouts in the trough, gaining wealth on the back of hardworking people whom they despise.

America’s founding fathers didn’t enter public life to build personal empires. Their focus was on building a Republic strong enough to endure beyond themselves. Many of them served for relatively short periods compared to modern career politicians. George Washington served eight years in office; John Adams served 12 years. Alexander Hamilton, the key author of the Federalist Papers, served five years as the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

Compare that to today’s politicians. Bernie Sanders has been in office for over 35 years. Nancy Pelosi, she’s held office for 39 years. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer for over 40 years each and counting. The founders gave everything to build America, but too many career politicians today seem more interested in preserving their position.

We have found out there was brazen fraud taking place in Minnesota. Even money that was meant to feed hungry kids in Minnesota—roughly $250 million allegedly stolen in the "Feeding Our Future" scheme. Under Gavin Newsom’s watch in 2020, California’s unemployment system paid roughly $10.4 billion on claims that the state auditor later identified as fraudulent. That’s not a rounding error; it’s a massive failure to protect taxpayer money.

I would expect the governors of the states where billions of dollars are being stolen from taxpayers to be outraged at that. But that’s not the response we’ve seen. I’ll tell you what I’m really watching for; it’s a biblical word: repentance. If there’s no repentance, there’s no real change. Repentance carries with it two meanings: it’s a change of mind, which means I’ve been thinking about this the wrong way, and it’s a change of behavior, which means I’ve been acting in the wrong way.

When I hear real repentance from elected officials, when I hear them say I’ve thought about this the wrong way and I have behaved wrongly, then I’ll trust them to oversee what’s next. If politicians who lacked integrity weren’t bad enough, how about the legacy media members who don’t say a thing about the corruption, the fraud, the stealing that’s taking place?

What would it take for the media to say that this is a problem? To say that the billions of dollars being fraudulently taken from the American people is bad? We as the church cannot sit quiet in this season. We have an assignment to stand for the truth, to search for it, because the solution to society’s ills is not political; it’s spiritual. In a moment, joining us will be Eric Eggers. He’s the vice president of the Government Accountability Institute. I’ll be right back.

Allen Jackson: Every day brings new reasons to worry—family, finances, health, the future. Sometimes it feels like the weight of tomorrow steals the peace we’re meant to enjoy today. But Jesus gives us a different invitation. In Matthew chapter 6, He tells us, "Do not worry." Not because life will always be easy, but because our Heavenly Father is faithful.

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Allen Jackson: Tonight, we’re joined by the vice president of the Government Accountability Institute, Eric Eggers. Welcome to the show, Eric.

Eric Eggers: Allen, it’s great to be back with you. How are you?

Allen Jackson: Very well. The RNC has gathered in Dallas for their first-ever midterm convention with both President Trump and Vice President Vance in attendance. I suppose the goal is the midterms and to maintain the common-sense revolution. Do you think the convention is going to be enough to bring some real momentum into the ballot boxes in November?

Eric Eggers: Only if, because they’re holding it in Dallas, they discover even more oil, which allows them to lower gas prices for the rest of the country. I think that would have a profound impact on their possibility here in November. But short of that, I do think that it’s not the best moment right now. You’ve got Donald Trump’s approval rating, I believe, is in the 30s, and diesel is at record-high prices, which of course impacts the price of everything else that gets shipped somewhere on a truck in this country—a lot of groceries.

So, it is a difficult moment, and I think what they should hope for is that you can have a unifying message and get some clarity to what they should be talking about moving forward and to bring contrast to the choices that voters will face. People may not love Republicans, but if they can be told clearly and explicitly just how radical and wrong a lot of these opponents are, then maybe that gives them a chance as well.

Allen Jackson: I know the goal is momentum for the midterms, but I can’t help but wonder if it feels a little bit like they’re kicking off J.D. Vance’s run for 2028 with this convention. Is that just my imagination?

Eric Eggers: I think that you’re not the only one that thinks that, Allen. It's very perceptive. And I’m sure there are some other people that would like to get some of the airtime that J.D. Vance is getting. But I do think that the best part about all of this is they are unified. And if there’s one advantage Republicans do have, it is financial.

They’re sitting on over 100 million more dollars than the Democrats have at a party level, and because of the recent Supreme Court ruling, you can coordinate that spending. So the more coordinated and unified they can be, that is one thing that is a mark in their favor when considering what the likelihood is. The house races aren’t looking good, but I think they still feel like they can hang on to the Senate.

Allen Jackson: You have researched and written extensively on fraud. It just seems like it’s a never-ending topic and there’s no bottom to that bucket of bizarre fraud in our country. Is what this administration doing, is it enough to truly make a difference?

Eric Eggers: That’s actually one of the winning messages the Republicans have right now, and I think it’s one of the reasons why you hear them talk about the efforts that they’ve taken to stop it. Speaker Johnson said something the other day when he was actually talking about the fight to improve election integrity and stop election fraud, which is just one of the many types of fraud that this administration’s taking on.

He said Republicans have been a lone voice on this issue, and I think that’s something the American people need to understand. This should not be a partisan issue—making elections safe and secure and stopping the theft of our tax dollars that are supposed to go to social programs to take care of the least of these. This should be something that everyone wants to do.

And these attorneys general in blue states, they should be willing to do their job, which is to stop crime. That’s what fraud is. So I think between the efforts to stop the fraud and the low end prescription drug prices, those are two issues the Trump administration wants to make sure the American people understand that they’ve been delivered for the American people.

Allen Jackson: I really don’t understand some of the simple things, like the Save America Act. It’s an 80% issue. Americans want it passed, and basically the Democrats in the Senate refuse to take it up. How do they survive when they ignore the will of the people on a topic that’s that one-sided?

Eric Eggers: Well, number one, you don’t hear too many mainstream or legacy media organizations talking about the fight to do that. That would be the first thing. The second thing is, sadly, Democrats aren’t the only ones who worked against the passage of the Save Act. You have Republicans in the Senate, I’m sorry to say, that didn’t give the effort the support it deserved because you’re right, it's an 80% issue.

So the Republicans that didn’t support it, Republicans like John Cornyn in Texas, did lose elections. So there has been some pushback and there have been some consequences. Mitch McConnell, who is another not very strong voice of support on this issue, he’s leaving.

So I do think there are electoral repercussions, but it is a defeat for what should have been a collective win for American elections. I do think, though, and I’ve said this before, that while they may not be successful in getting election integrity reforms passed for the midterms this fall, I do believe that you will see momentum and things change that they can have from the administrative state. They can leverage these agencies to do things, and I think election integrity will be a major part of Donald Trump’s legacy when he leaves office.

Allen Jackson: Dr. Oz has been talking a bit about healthcare fraud and some of its abuses. Watch what he had to say, and then I want to get your opinion.

Dr. Mehmet Oz: We have got to deal with the fraud issues. And here’s why: they’re not just stealing your money, they’re stealing your health. Because if they don’t care about stealing from poor people, they’ll take your health away. And they’re stealing the nation’s trust. Medicare and Medicaid were created in a high-trust environment. We assumed people would do the right things.

We now are experiencing about $100 billion of theft a year, much of it because of the COVID pandemic’s impact on teaching criminals to move into health care. And we believe if we could just take the fraud out of Medicare, we would double the life expectancy of the Medical Trust Fund.

Allen Jackson: I know you and Peter Schweizer recently had a conversation about this on your podcast. What are your thoughts on this healthcare fraud and the massive nature of it?

Eric Eggers: It’s so crazy because for four years, the Biden administration took this so unseriously. It’s like for four years if a parent told their child, "You don’t have to brush your teeth." Imagine then, four years later, the mouth’s going to be filled with cavities. That’s essentially what’s happened to our welfare system. There are so many problems here.

And so Dr. Oz and RFK Jr., the blue states have been negligent. And we’ve actually done some reporting on how few personnel some of these states even have to investigate this material. So, absolutely. And that’s why I say this is an issue. You talk about election reform, the Save Act being an 80/20 issue. What do you think stopping fraud is?

A vast, overwhelming majority of the American people support this. It’s a shame, it’s a crime quite literally that the Biden administration for four years let this go unchecked. And so thank goodness that we have people in state that are trying. It’s our tax dollars, and it’s our loved ones that should be able to take advantage of these programs that they’re intended for, not fraudsters and not these kind of illegal immigrant crime rings that have propped up in places like Minnesota and California.

Allen Jackson: Eric, we need to take a short break. Can you stay with us for another segment?

Eric Eggers: Absolutely, Allen.

Allen Jackson: And for those of you watching, if you’ve got a phone nearby, you can log on to AJNow.com and send us an email with your thoughts on this fraud topic. We’d love to hear them. I’ll be right back.

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Allen Jackson: We’re back now with Eric Eggers from the Government Accountability Institute. Eric, the Trump administration recently announced plans to draft a proposal that could reshape federal childcare policy by allowing some parents to receive government-funded childcare assistance for taking care of their children at home. I suspect you’ve got some thoughts on that.

Eric Eggers: Well, it’s funny, Allen. I mentioned Minnesota at the end of the last segment. And do you know that the number one job, the most popular job that people hold in the state of Minnesota, is personal care attendant? Because Minnesota has passed something like that, and I don’t believe you would be surprised to find that program is also rife with fraud. So, I’m concerned, only because as we just discussed, the more government-funded programs you have, the more rife for fraud opportunities they are. And we have not seen programs like this go well from an integrity and efficiency standpoint in the states where they’ve been tried before.

Allen Jackson: And it isn’t just the fraud issue. Where government funding comes, government policies come. I can’t imagine willingly inviting the government into parenting in our homes. We’ve watched government-funded education and where that’s led us. Surely we won’t capitulate to inviting the government into parenting in our homes.

Eric Eggers: It's such a good point. Remember Terry McAuliffe, right, who was the governor of Virginia. I think they lost that race—Glenn Youngkin became governor because Terry McAuliffe said something like the teacher should be in charge of the child, not the parent. That is a choice that I think we correctly made as a country some time ago. Remember, during COVID, we’ve learned the lessons I think all too well of when you were kind of discovered in real time some of the horrific things that were happening in classrooms and you had, I believe, the FBI label homeschool parents as terrorists.

So we have absolutely seen this tension and this opposition. No, you’re absolutely right, and I think that I would like to think that most parents will not cede that ground. I know certainly in states like Florida where I live, it’s a very different experience for parents than in places like California where I have friends who quite honestly can’t even find certain childcare facilities because they have not adhered to the correct vaccine regimen that the state demands.

So, you’re absolutely right: the more government regulations, the more government rules, the less control parents have over their children. And that’s not what this country was founded on.

Allen Jackson: Amen. Well, when we’re talking about surprises at the convention, Trump announced the possibility at least of the "Trump Dividend"—$5,000 per American if the election goes the right way. Another trillion dollars? That seems like socialism on steroids to me.

Eric Eggers: You know, it’s a tough choice, right? I mean, I don’t understand why they’re doing that, and I think you put it very adroitly, Allen. Because if what the Republicans are trying to do is draw a contrast between what they’re labeling as the extreme ideology and the radical positions that these Democrat socialists have, then how can you then come out and say, "Don’t vote for the socialists, vote for the guy that wants to give everybody $5,000"?

If elections are about choice, it seems like there are wiser moves to make to draw contrast between Republican and Democrat politicians. You know, I think they should be highlighting some of the radical positions of Abdul El-Sayed and some of these people; they’re so wrong on Israel, they’re wrong on foreign policy, they’re wrong on tax policy. You know, I’d like to see more illustration of why the Democrats are wrong than it kind of comes off as a little bit of a bribery attempt, Allen, quite honestly.

Allen Jackson: Feels that way. You know, I understand politicians pander for votes; it’s the nature of the relationship. But buying our votes with our money, increasing the nanny state, just seems fundamentally against all the things that bring liberty and freedom to us. We have to have a heart change amongst the electorate, or am I misreading that?

Eric Eggers: Allen, I think you’re exactly right. And quite honestly, I wish there were more messages of sobriety about kind of getting back to what this country was founded on. This country was not founded on giving everybody money; this country was founded on individual freedom and accountability.

Through divine providence and human agency, we have become the greatest country in the world. And quite honestly, even if Democrats are successful this fall, we will be okay as a nation. But I think that there are very real threats, right? If you’re worried about these Democrat socialists, they want to get rid of the Supreme Court, they want to get rid of the United States Senate.

I think that if we add more states, and that’s going to change the electoral map—there are very real threats and consequences that I think we should be highlighting rather than making what I quite honestly believe to be an empty promise because, as you noted, a trillion dollars is just adding to the deficit. Republicans used to be—I’m old enough, Allen, to remember a time when Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility. At least that’s what we talked about. I didn’t hear a lot of that talk the other night.

Allen Jackson: That’s why I maintain older acquaintances: you can remind me of what life used to be like. One last quick question: Supreme Court’s ruling on birthright citizenship. Trump has followed that up with some executive orders trying to limit some of those behaviors like birth tourism. Do you think they’re doing enough to truly make an impact?

Eric Eggers: I might have missed some of that question, Allen, my hearing aid was going out. But what I think you’re asking about is birth tourism and the ways in which that’s being exploited by China and other political opponents. Thankfully we have seen, I think, this is one of the good policies that they have taken advantage of and cracked down on. This is the stuff they should be talking about.

When you have somebody running a birth tourism center in Miami who has to take the Fifth because he doesn’t want to incriminate himself in the House Oversight Committee hearing, and you have, as we’ve discussed here at the Government Accountability Institute, China’s newspaper writing about the 14th Amendment and how it offers access to the best citizenship in the world—including, by the way, its suite of cradle-to-grave government benefits—then it’s good that the government in this country is cracking down.

We’re getting rid of these companies that are practicing birth tourism, and I think that when you announce that you’re arresting people—I think 1,100 scam and sham marriages because they’re trying to exploit the same loophole—again, they voted for Donald Trump, the American people did, because they wanted to restore sovereignty to this country.

They want to close the border and we want to turn off the spigot of benefits to people who didn’t come here legally in the first place. And so they are accomplishing much of that, and those are the types of wins that I think that they should be discussing. The American people have a lot to be proud of. They don’t need to be bribed; they should just be reminded of the very sound policies that we elected Donald Trump to execute in the first place.

Allen Jackson: Amen. Well, Eric, I thank you for your time today. I look forward to seeing you soon at our Culture and Christianity conference.

Eric Eggers: Allen, I can’t wait. I’m so humbled and honored you asked me to talk and I can’t wait to see you in person. Thank you so much.

Allen Jackson: We’ll be back in just a moment.

Allen Jackson: I want to give you a personal invitation to join my podcast, *Culture and Christianity*. You don’t compromise the truth, but you say it where the people know that you care about them. We’re trying to understand how to take our faith outside the walls of the church and live it out in the marketplace.

I just never understood the double standard because they punished me while my peers were allowed to talk about how devastated they were that Roe versus Wade was overturned. I brought in some friends, people that are trying to do this on a regular basis.

They’re never going to stop me because the truth is the truth. I’d rather be on God’s side than to be a coward. Now we’ve been living in a season of unprecedented deception, propaganda, manipulation. Our best option was to run. We were timing ourselves. I was trying to think, how can I protect my kids? Well, I want to be a part of seeing culture and Christianity intersect. I hope you’ll join the podcast soon.

Allen Jackson: Thank you for taking the time to send us an email. Your thoughts and opinions are always a highlight. Jay from Washington wrote: "We had a revolution and we went to war to build this country. A civil war to keep it together. Why have our leaders not called for one to preserve it? Their oath is to protect against all enemies, both foreign and domestic."

Well, Jay, the answer to that question would take longer than time permits, but I do have one thought. The Civil War emerged because the majority of Americans had the will to stand up for the right thing, even if there was a high cost for that, and we saw slavery come to an end. I don’t think we’re that unified right now about what the right thing is.

There’s some work for the church to do. People of faith have got to take our opinions, our biblical worldview back into the public square with some determination and some intent. If we will do that, then I think we’ll see a change in the attitudes of our leaders. God’s moving in the earth. Let’s join Him and not just be spectators. Thank you for spending a few moments of your day with us. God bless, and good night.