[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24255]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       WASHINGTON WASTE WATCHERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, while the Democrats 
continue to want to raise the taxes on the hard-working Americans, or 
when they keep proposing, as they did this year, over a $1 trillion 
increase, or close to $1 trillion, $890 billion increase, to be 
precise, on the already, I think, large deficit, thank God the 
President, though, has released the President's agenda that we are all 
familiar with, which outlines a plan to clean up this mess of just 
waste, fraud, and abuse that exists and is rampant here in Washington 
and that has always been rampant here in Washington.
  The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) eloquently mentioned some 
issues that should concern all Americans as to how Washington wastes 
America's taxpayers' money. I am reminded of all of the cases, case 
after case, of fraud, waste, and abuse that continue to happen, 
including money that is just absolutely lost in this huge bureaucracy.
  In 1999 the Army, for example, took an inventory of its assets and 
found that, check this out, 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, I do not know how 
you lose 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin-command launch units for which it had 
no record, had no records for them. That same year, GAO identified more 
than $3 billion in inventory that the Navy had ``lost in transit.'' How 
do you lose $3 billion of inventory in transit? The GAO also found 
$400,000 in computer purchases that the Department of Education had not 
recorded in the property records. By the way, 200,000 of those 
computers could never be located.
  Yet, I repeat, the Democrats insist on raising the taxes on the hard-
working Americans, because there is not enough money. There is not 
enough money if you want to lose more money, if you want to throw away 
more money, if you want to splurge more money; but there is clearly 
more than enough money to do what we need to do here, as long as we get 
a little bit more responsible.
  I commend the President for his efforts.
  Mr. Speaker, the Inspector General at the Department of Veterans 
Affairs alone has identified more than 5,500 possible cases of 
individuals who may be defrauding the Veterans Administration by 
receiving benefits intended for veterans, these are benefits that are 
intended for benefits, but for people who are dead. Mr. Speaker, 5,500. 
Fourteen thousand, almost 14,000 incarcerated veterans have been paid 
about $100 million, and these are not small sums, $100 million in 
benefits that they were clearly not eligible for. And yet the Democrats 
insist on coming up with proposal after proposal and budget after 
budget that raises the taxes of the hard-working Americans in this 
country. To do more of this?
  Over $100 million, another $100 million in improper payments of 
missed Medicare beneficiaries who rely on them. Over the last 4 years, 
by the way, for example, the Department of Agriculture has spent $5.13 
billion in improper payments, improper payments intended to go to food 
stamp beneficiaries. Yet, the Democrats say, there is not enough money, 
and they insist on trying to raise the taxes on the hard-working 
Americans of this country.
  Mr. Speaker, that is why, with a number of my colleagues, we have 
come up with the Washington Waste Watchers to not only highlight the 
fact, not that Washington has enough money, but that we have too much 
money, and that there is not enough accountability. We commend the 
President for his steps in the right direction, and we are going to 
continue to let the American people know where their money is being 
spent and, in many cases, misspent. And, no, we are not going to 
support raising taxes. We are going to support changing the culture up 
here from a culture of waste, of fraud, and abuse to a culture of 
fiscal responsibility.

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