Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., is praising the Trump administration's latest anti-fraud efforts and calling for stronger safeguards and tougher penalties against those accused of stealing taxpayer dollars through healthcare and children's assistance programs.

Appearing Friday on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America Early,” Carter reacted to details of "Operation Playground Therapy," a fraud investigation highlighted by FBI Director Kash Patel, and said those responsible must face serious consequences.

"Well, I applaud the administration for doing this. This is something that needs to be done," Carter said. "Let me tell you, there is a special place in hell for people who abuse hospice [care], who abuse children's programs like this, and they need to be caught, and we need to make sure that they are prosecuted and that they suffer the consequences of this."

Carter, a pharmacist who previously owned a pharmacy serving hospice patients, said the alleged fraud points to failures in oversight that should have raised red flags much earlier.

"There are a lot of parts of this that concern me," he said. "First of all, we've heard about 112 hospices operating out of one location, one address. That should have been called earlier. The second one that listed an address of the same address, that should have stopped it right there. We need to have better procedures in place so that we can catch this before it gets this far."

The Georgia Republican said federal and state officials need systems capable of detecting fraud before taxpayer money is lost.

"I'm real concerned about the procedures that we have in place as it is, so that we don't have to catch it after the fact, so we can stop it before it happens," Carter said. "That's the kind of thing that we need in the government, to have procedures in place that we can stop it before it even gets this far."

The comments come as the Trump administration has made combating fraud a major priority. Federal officials have expanded investigations into healthcare, government benefits, and public assistance programs. 

The Justice Department announced last year what it described as the largest healthcare fraud takedown in U.S. history, charging 324 defendants in schemes involving more than $14.6 billion in alleged fraudulent claims. Federal authorities also reported preventing billions more in improper payments through Medicare and Medicaid oversight efforts.

Carter argued that penalties imposed on fraudsters often fail to deter future misconduct.

"You're absolutely right. They want to see people in jail. They want to see people in handcuffs," he said, referring to public frustration over fraud cases. "For someone to steal $5 million and okay, we're going to fine you $1 million. That doesn't make any sense. They still came away with 4 million. We've got to make sure that they suffer the consequences of this."

He also said accountability should extend beyond federal agencies to state governments responsible for administering taxpayer-funded programs.

"The states need to be responsible," Carter said. "They need to make sure that this money is going to where it was supposed to go. It's not just federal money. This is taxpayers' money. And those taxpayers are our state citizens as well. So we need to hold the state officials responsible as well. They need to have some accountability."

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