Date: 2003-09-30
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Madam Speaker. the Washington Waste Watchers have been hard at work locating a vast range of government waste. fraud. and abuse. Unfortunately. these examples have not been hard to find. Madam Speaker. For some. however. examples of wasted taxpayers money does not slow down their efforts to raise taxes. We have got a spending problem here in Washington. and waste. fraud. and abuse is a huge part of why we have that problem. For example. $366 million. $366 million in Pell grant awards was improperly disbursed because applicants understated their income on their applications last year. That resulted in over 84.000 Pell grants lost to waste. fraud. and abuse. And the Democrats want to raise taxes to pay for more of this? The Veterans Affairs Inspector General. Madam Speaker. estimates that roughly 14.000 incarcerated veterans have been paid about $100 million nationwide because the Department has no method of identifying prisoners. never has. $100 million in wasted benefits that missed going to the needy. truly needy veterans in order to line the pockets of Washingtons bureaucracy. And the Democrats. Madam Speaker. want to raise taxes to pay for more of this? Over the last 4 years. the Department of Agriculture spent a total of $5.13 billion in food stamp overpayments. That is $5.13 billion wasted instead of helping lowincome families who are unable to put food on their table. And again Democrats insist on wanting to raise the taxes of the hardworking American people to do more of this? We do not need to raise taxes to improve government benefit programs. but Madam Speaker. we have to be willing to reach into the pockets of the bureaucracy and stop that system from spending the checks of our taxpayers money. Accounting schemes that send people to jail in the private sector do not even impact a normal promotion schedule for the bureaucracy in the Federal Government. It is not an issue here. See. it is time to hold those people responsible for wasting taxpayers money. but we have got to be. committed to fixing the broken systems. not just pouring more and more tax money from the hardworking people to keep the same programs going exactly the same and wasting the same amount of money as the Democrats would suggest. The American taxpayers are not fooled. Madam Speaker. They know that their hardearned tax dollars have paid for $106 billion in Medicare improper payments since 1996. Their dollars have paid for $233 million in improper payments within the Veterans Compensation and Benefit program. Their tax dollars have even bought a pet dog for a member of the bureaucracy with a government charge card. Billions of dollars are lost every single year to waste. fraud. and abuse. Taxpayers are sending their money here to Washington only to find that it is being wasted. and the Democrats again still want to raise their taxes. saying there is not enough money up here. There is a clear path. Madam Spcaker. to eliminate waste. fraud. and abuse throughout this Federal Government. We must find savings and not colerate. I repeat. not tolerate. any level of wasted taxpayer dollars. Democrats have chosen to oppose those efforts time and time again and fight to raise taxes in order to pay for more of this business as usual. Every week. Madam Speaker. the Washington Waste Watchers will keep reminding every person. every person in this Chamber of the impact of government waste. fraud. and abuse. not only to the taxpayers. Madam Speaker. but also to the beneficiaries who do not receive the benefits that they do deserve. Again. we will also remind our friends on the other side of the aisle that their constant attempts to raise taxes will only result in billions of additional dollars being lost to waste. fraud. and abuse at the expense of the hardworking American taxpayer.