Daily Update - December 31, 2025

Fraud at HUD points us to other welfare reforms.

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About Reuel Sample

This is the Wilmington Standard Daily Update for Wednesday December 31st, 2025.

A US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report found more than $5 billion in taxpayer funds went to “questionable” rental assistance recipients during the final year of the Biden administration — including around 30,000 “deceased tenants” and “thousands” of potential non-citizens.

While payments were concentrated in New York, California and Washington, DC – payments went to deceased persons in all 50 states – including – presumably – North Carolina.

$5 billion dollars – of our money – gone – because of a massive and mismanaged government handout program. HUD officials blamed the Biden administration for a directive to “push funding out the door with minimal oversight.”

Certainly, those who received funding improperly – and those who let it happen – need to be held accountable – criminally so if needed. While that money will probably never be recovered, laws were broken and need to be prosecuted.

But just as we have started the process of breaking up the Department of Education at the federal level, we should also look at doing the same for HUD, FEMA, and other agencies who give out massive amounts of money as part of their mandates. It is virtually impossible to make sure that every dollar goes to where it is supposed to go with numbers this high. However, if we put that responsibility into the hands of the states – we can get closer to the accountability of tax-payer funds that we should all demand.

Beyond that, we need to rethink all of our government welfare programs, that make up over 1 trillion dollars in federal outlays – or over 16% of our entire budget. We need to find ways to get people off these programs, less reliant on government and more self-sufficient. We need to reduce or eliminate the income tax, get rid of the minimum wage that blocks people from getting entry-level jobs, and unleash the American economy so we can put our people to work so they can take care of their families and themselves – without relying on the government.

Or we can just go on seeing our money wasted, misspent, or simply – as in the case of HUD – stolen by those who just don’t care.

For the Wilmington Standard, I’m Reuel Sample. Thanks for listening.

Reuel Sample is the Editor-in-Chief of The Wilmington Standard. A graduate of Grove City College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he has served as both a Presbyterian Pastor and a Navy Chaplain. He is the product of a classical liberal arts education combined with real world experience in politics and business and conservative Christian worldview firmly rooted in the Reformed tradition. He is the host of several podcasts including the NHC GOP Podcast, the Pastor's Voice, and co-hosts the Nikki and Reuel Podcast Experience. An avid sailor, he has sailed around the world as a youth and to the Azores as a teen as well as extensive trips up and down the east coast of the United States. He is honored to be married to his wife Pam and makes his home in Wilmington, NC.