It’s business.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz holds a news conference at the Minnesota State Capitol on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell’Orto)

If it has done nothing else, the Minnesota welfare fraud scandal has served to reveal the business model of the far-left wing – a “wing” that is rapidly becoming better defined as the mainstream center – of the Democratic Party.

(The scandal has put a stop – at least for now – to the political aspirations of Minnesota governor Tim Walz. One shudders to think of him as vice president.)

Let’s be clear. It is a business model and not a political or policy model. It’s about power. And it’s about the principal by-product of power, which is to say, money.

The model is an eight-step plan that works like this.

Step One: Build a population of people dependent on government benefits as quickly as possible by any means necessary. This imperative is what drove the Biden administration’s open border policies. It’s a simple fact that poor, unemployable migrants will be dependent upon the entire smorgasbord of state and federal government welfare benefits. The bigger that cohort gets, the more easily it can be used for political leverage.

Step Two: Point to that large and growing dependent population as evidence of acute need for federal funding. The more “clients” you have, the more money you can get from Washington.

Step Three: Form or co-opt non-profit organizations to administer your efforts at relief: (read: “manage” the money). These are called non-government organizations, or “NGOs.” NGOs are your ground troops. Their top executives must be lavishly paid. These are the organizations with do-good-sounding names like, “Feeding Our Future,” that “address” social problems such as childhood autism, “affordable” day care, school lunches for disadvantaged children, etc., etc.

Step Four: Disburse government funds to recipients via your NGOs. Organizations receiving money need only be legitimate to the point that they can pass a cursory examination. (A child learning center with the word “learning” misspelled on the sign will be perfectly OK.)

Step Five: Firmly establish a quid pro quo with said organizations by which a generous portion of the money will find its way back into the campaign war chests (and eventually into the pockets) of Democratic politicians.

Step Six: Quash by any means necessary any effort at fiscal oversight so that money may more easily wind up in the hands of those that are in on the grift (see Steps Three, Four and Five above).

Step Seven: Get as much of this dependent population as you can get away with on the voter rolls to get and keep Democrats in office so that the whole enterprise might be kept going.

Step Eight: Count on no one ever noticing or saying anything about the fact that none of the problems this giant pile of money was supposed to solve ever get solved.

This, in a simplified illustration, is what is now coming to light in Minnesota. And while it can happen anywhere that politicians and massive piles of taxpayer cash converge, a functioning fourth estate would be pointing out that it’s nevertheless usually at its most egregious proportions in blue states.