Donald Trump has proposed legislation that would impose tougher, mandatory prison sentences on people who defraud American benefit programmes. The measure targets schemes that drain Medicare and Medicaid, the federal health programmes that serve elderly and low-income patients. His argument is that convicted fraudsters have too often walked away with light sentences after costing taxpayers billions. Mandatory minimums would strip judges of much of the discretion they exercise today in fraud cases. They would also send a blunt warning to organised rings that bill for services patients never received. No timeline for a vote has emerged yet, and the bill's support in Congress is unclear. Even so, promising harder punishment for benefit fraud is familiar ground for American politicians, and expect the debate over how far mandatory sentences should go to follow.