Someone needs to save the nation from fraudsters, scammers, and financial crime syndicates that cost U.S. taxpayers billions every year.

The most effective scammer does not need to steal your wallet. 

All he needs is access to a government program large enough to pay him before anyone checks whether the transaction was legitimate.

Government programs rife with fraud are a thorny problem. Nevertheless, that is the problem Vice President J.D. Vance has been asked to confront. 

In March 2026, President Donald Trump named him chairman of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, giving him a mandate to coordinate federal agencies that administer benefits and investigate abuse. 

This week, Vance announced one of its largest actions yet: the cancellation of Affordable Care Act enrollments covering more than 760,000 people. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expects the move to return roughly $2.2 billion in taxpayer-funded insurance subsidies.

That is serious money. It is also a reminder of how often fraud can hide inside a program intended to help people. CMS says it confirmed that the canceled enrollments were unauthorized. Some people may have been enrolled without their knowledge by brokers who stood to profit from signing them up. A citizen whose name was used without permission is a victim of the scheme, not its mastermind.

The brokers are where investigators should focus. 

CMS reports that newly registered agents and brokers account for a disproportionate share of applications with unresolved income questions, missing Social Security numbers and other warning signs. Its response includes stronger identity checks, electronic consumer authorization and action against brokers who violate Marketplace rules. Those measures target the point where an illegitimate application enters the system.

Independent investigators have found reason for concern. 

In undercover tests, the Government Accountability Office obtained subsidized Marketplace coverage for nearly all of a small group of fictitious applicants. GAO cautioned that its test cannot be used to estimate fraud across the entire program. It did demonstrate a vulnerability that an enterprising criminal could exploit. GAO has also urged stronger controls against unauthorized actions by agents and brokers.

Vance’s assignment extends well beyond Obamacare. 

His task force brings together agencies responsible for health care, food assistance, housing and other federal benefits. Its job is to improve eligibility checks, find patterns that cross programs and stop questionable payments before they leave the Treasury. In Minnesota, for example, CMS deferred about $259 million in federal Medicaid matching funds while reviewing unsupported or potentially fraudulent claims. The Justice Department has also established a National Fraud Enforcement Division to pursue criminal cases.

For years, the government too often relied on a costly sequence: pay first, discover the problem later and attempt to recover whatever remains. Criminals can move faster than an audit. A serious antifraud campaign must interrupt that sequence without making eligible Americans wait indefinitely for care or benefits they need.

Vance can make a difference because he has the standing to demand cooperation among agencies that normally work in separate lanes. A broker’s enrollment data, an insurer’s payment records and a prosecutor’s evidence may reveal different parts of the same scheme. Connecting them could expose organized networks rather than merely canceling suspicious applications one at a time.

But this campaign will be judged by results, not the size of its announcements. 

The projected $2.2 billion ACA recovery is not yet $2.2 billion collected. A deferred Medicaid payment is not proof that every claim was fraudulent. Criminal charges are not convictions. Keeping those distinctions clear makes the case for enforcement stronger, because taxpayers can see what was prevented, what was recovered and who was held accountable.

Fraud is not a partisan concern. Every dollar diverted through a bogus claim is a dollar taxpayers supplied for a legitimate public purpose. Every unauthorized enrollment can also create trouble for the person whose information was used. Democrats should want those abuses stopped. Republicans should insist that the crackdown works accurately as well as aggressively.

Can J.D. Vance rescue the country from fraud? No single vice president can. But he can force a government that spends trillions to ask a basic question before it pays: Is this person or provider entitled to the money? If his task force turns that question into routine practice — and follows the evidence wherever it leads — Vance could leave taxpayers with something more valuable than a dramatic press conference: a government that is harder to steal from.

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)