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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 10/02/2003 8:05:03 AM PDT by OXENinFLA
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=H9077&dbname=2003_record
I was watching the house last night and I think the point MR. DIAZ-BALART is making needs to be pointed out.
The $87B is needed and the Dems are using it as another political football.
There were MANY great speeches on the House Rep. side last night. Hit the link and page forward.
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WASHINGTON WASTE WATCHER SPEAKS OUT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. MARIO DIAZBALART) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida.
Madam Speaker, I was not going to speak today but I felt compelled after I heard some remarks by one of our distinguished colleagues from the other party about the spending that the United States is proposing to do in Iraq and his concerns for the deficit situation in the United States of America. And I share his concern for the deficit, but I need to clarify some facts if we are concerned about the deficit, and then we must be consistent. Madam Speaker, that same party in this Congress, and this is my first term here, has proposed amendments to major pieces of legislation that would have increased the deficit by $890 billion. Members heard me right, almost a trillion dollars of an increase on top of the deficit that exists right now. And yet in the Committee on the Budget when the chairman proposed a 1 percent cut, just a 1 percent cut in waste, fraud and abuse, Madam Speaker, the distinguished members of the other party all, 100 percent of them, voted no. The chairman did not get one single vote to cut just 1 percent in waste, fraud and abuse in that committee. Is it because there is no waste, fraud and abuse in the Federal Government? Is the Federal Government so efficiently run that we cannot find 1 percent in waste, fraud and abuse?
Madam Speaker, I have been mentioning lots of examples as part of the Washington Waste Watchers Group that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. HENSARLING) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. FEENEY) and I created with a number of our colleagues, but let me mention a couple of small examples to illustrate how much waste exists. For example, Medicaid alone paid $1.6 million to a Wisconsin transportation company for multiple round-trip billings for people that were dead or that were hospital-bound that were not moving anywhere. There is a lot more. The Veterans Affairs inspector general has identified over 5,500 possible cases of individuals who may be defrauding the government by receiving benefits intended for veterans who have died, who are dead, who are not there, who do not exist. Totally fraudulent. Again, that is money that does not go to the real veterans that deserve it.
Over the past 5 years, 6,733 fugitives have been arrested for illegally receiving food stamps. By the way, 1,500 of those were drug offenders, 31 were murders, 45 were sex offenders and child molesters, and hundreds were wanted for assault and robbery, and yet they received benefits they are not qualified for.
And yet some will say it is not enough to cut 1 percent in waste, fraud and abuse, and we see what they request as opposed to that, and we hear time and time again, the Democrats keep saying we have to raise taxes. We have to raise taxes because there is not enough money, because the Federal Government is run so efficiently that we cannot cut 1 percent of waste, fraud and abuse.
Madam Speaker, the facts do not bear that out. The Federal Government does waste people’s money. The Federal Government loses almost $20 billion a year that just evaporates, they do not know where it is. The Federal Government cannot even misspend it because it is lost. And then they still say, the Democratic side, that we have to raise the hard-working American taxpayer’s taxes because there is no waste, fraud and abuse. Madam Speaker, the American people know better. We can and we must cut waste, fraud and abuse; and clearly, the days of raising taxes on the American people have to be over, and they are.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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Yep. Thank God it's the fiscally responsible Republicans that are morgaging your kids' futures.
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