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Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s attack on waste, fraud and abuse has recouped or prevented an estimated $150 million in misspent Medicaid and FoodShare benefits for Wisconsin taxpayers, the governor’s office says.

Under Walker, Wisconsin has sharply increased the resources devoted to ferreting out misuse of taxpayers’ money. When he took office in 2011, there was one inspector devoted to finding fraud in Medicaid and food assistance programs; now there are two dozen.

“When people abuse the system, they’re stealing taxpayer-funded resources and putting the programs at risk for those who truly need them,” Walker said during a July tour touting his anti-fraud effort.

But behind that tough rhetoric, some tools for fighting waste, fraud and abuse in state spending have been weakened in recent years by actions of political leaders and state Supreme Court justices, according to a six-month investigation by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

The Center found that whistleblowers have been sidelined in Wisconsin by court rulings that make it nearly impossible for them to get protection from retaliation.