Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) compared the recently uncovered Minnesota daycare fraud scandal to organized crime in a recent appearance on Fox Business's Varney & Co., adding that government collusion must have been a factor in its perpetration.

Representative Mike Haridopolos (R-FL) initially made the comparison in a previous interview, where he called for the federal government to "use the full powers that we used to destroy the Mafia back in the 1960s."

Rep. Gimenez only slightly deviated from that premise, arguing that "they may not be totally aligned with each other, or like part of a family, but they do talk to each other, and it is pretty much akin to organized crime."

Nevertheless, he agreed that "we have to do a better job in Congress to make sure that there are not loopholes that allow these fraudsters to commit these crimes," and that "we also need to make sure that the FBI does go after these fraudsters and hit them hard, and then our judges hit them hard when they are caught."

"There is fraud all over the place in the United States; the Somalians apparently have taken it to a new level," the Florida Congressman continued.

Gimenez was questioned over why he believed the fraud was allowed to continue as long as it has, which allegedly stretches back to 2015. Gimenez answered, "There has to be some collusion inside the government, too. And so I am sure that as people are signing up and you see this, you say, 'Well, I do not want to say anything about it because they may be my constituency.'"

"There has to be some collusion by the government because this apparently was so widespread and so outrageous that I do not believe that people inside the government, maybe in the state government, maybe even in the federal government, did not know what was going on," he argued. "They just kept their mouth shut. Those people, too, need to be brought to justice."