Date: 2003-07-16
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. we have already heard from a number of my colleagues here regarding this new working group. the Washington Waste Watchers Group. to expose and to help root out waste. fraud. abuse. the doubletalk that is so rampant up here in the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker. I am relatively new here. as you well know. This is my first term. What I have found when I got here is a number of interesting things. Number one is how here in Washington when you see huge increases in government spending. some on the Democratic side call that. cuts. H1ow we have found in a very short period of time. millions? No. Mr. Speaker. not millions. billions of dollars of wasted. of lost taxpayers money. money that is being robbed from the taxpayer. And also. Mr. Speaker. that money is also being robbed from the people that are dependent on the services of government. It is money that is being robbed from the students. money that is being robbed from the teachers. from the law enforcement officers. from our brave men and women in uniform. While we heard some of my colleagues specifically mention some of those billions of dollars worth of overpayments. our dear friends in the minority party propose as a solution this year on this floor $890 billion in more government spending. Mr. Speaker. while my colleagues here mention billions of dollars of lost money. money that has evaporated with zero accountability. our good friends in the minority party propose as a solution to spend another $890 billion of the hardworking American people. Take it from them. Mr. Speaker. and bring it up here so we can waste. we can misspend. we can lose and we can hire more bureaucracy. Mr. Speaker. while we heard from some of my colleagues. Republican colleagues. about improper payments. billions of dollars of improper payments. some going for dead people that did not then go to serve. for example. our seniors. our friends in the minority party still propose increasing taxes to do more of that? Mr. Speaker. this group -is a group of young. when I say young. some are younger than others. but new Members of this Chamber. and we want to see if we can change the culture a little bit here in Washington. D.C. We commend the President for trying to do the same thing. to change the culture from a culture of irresponsibility. of lack of accountability. of it doesnt matter because we will take more money from the hardworking American people to bring it up here. So it doesnt matter if we lose money. it doesnt matter if nobody is held accountable. it doesnt matter if nobody is indicted. it doesnt matter if nobody is imprisoned. it doesnt matter because we will- just raise taxes on the American people. on those hardworking American people that are struggling to pay their bills. Mr. Speaker. again. we are here to announce that. with a number of colleagues. we are not going to sit by idly and watch as money is wasted. is thrown away. evaporates. is lost. We are here to come up with solutions. to first- highlight the problem and then come up with solutions. specific solutions so that the American people can know that when they send us their valuable. hardearned tax money. that money is going to be well spent on essential services for those that truly need it and not on more bureaucracy. on more misspending. on more evaporated dollars that nobody can find.