Candace Taylor, 35, of Slidell, Louisiana was arrested this week for what state and local authorities are calling Medicaid fraud.
Attorney General Liz Murrill (R-Louisiana) went so far as to call Taylor the "Medicaid millionaire."
Among the government's accusations was that Taylor bought a Lamborghini while claiming government benefits for years.
Brandon Arnold, executive vice president of National Taxpayers Union, told AFN that he was not surprised, adding his organization has seen "far too much waste, fraud, and abuse" in programs.
"Medicaid has certainly been the victim of many fraudulent schemes over the years, but any time there is a lot of money to be had, unfortunately there's a lot of bad actors out there," said Arnold. 'We saw that quite a bit during the pandemic days when we were creating all these government programs and people were … stealing money if we're being blunt about it and using the dollars to go to Vegas or take all sorts of lavish vacations, spend money on fancy things."
Arnold said the government has not done a sufficient job in Medicaid or in other programs to tamp down on this type of abuse.
"It's always frustrating, if not infuriating to see people stealing money from taxpayers and in this case to see a woman with a big grin on her face as she is caught in the act, that makes it even more frustrating," said Arnold.
Since returning to office, President Donald Trump and his administration have made efforts to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is one example. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved state efforts to prevent things such as candy bars and soda from being eligible for SNAP, aka food stamps. 
Arnold hopes this situation will help facilitate additional reforms.
"That was one of the trickiest parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill, reforming the Medicaid program, because it has been such a popular program, and it's popular for a good reason because it does serve an important purpose, making sure that our least fortunate or most vulnerable population has some form of health insurance.”
The concept is good, helping those who need help.
“But over the years it's grown and been expanded on numerous occasions, and as it has been expanded it has also been taken advantage of by some bad actors out there," said Arnold. "So, I think it's important as the One Big Beautiful Bill did begin to institute some program integrity, that is, making sure that people who are here illegally are not receiving taxpayer benefits, to make sure that people that are otherwise gaming the system to get themselves on Medicaid are getting booted off the rolls.”
Sometimes hard decisions have to be made.
“That has been a politically sensitive topic, but one that is absolutely critical, and I hope the One Big Beautiful Bill is the first step in many to make this program work for the people that it is supposed to work for and making sure that others are not taking advantage of this big and poorly-run federal program."
