Mike Johanns

I would want to know that. And if I did know that, I would be telling somebody, my committee of jurisdiction, the President himself, 'There is a very serious problem here.'

And, again, not to get into a partisan debate about whether we like the healthcare bill or not--we could have that debate, and we have had--I think the managers, right up to the gentleman in the Oval Office, deserve to know if this thing…

I think that is good information to have. But I could be a Cabinet member and my team could be coming to me and saying, 'We are on budget. We are on schedule. We are not moving the goalposts,' and I would report green.

So at that time and at this time today, if I am a Secretary, and we report that we are on budget, number one, and number two, that we are meeting the schedule for whatever rollout day is, then I get a green on the performance Dashboard is…

We have spent money, really, to no avail.

I appreciate your candor, because I think everybody knows that is the obvious answer.

I appreciate that explanation, but I am still going to get back to what happened at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), because I think this is a worrisome problem for what you are trying to do here.

I don't care what side of the political spectrum you are on, Democrat or Republican, this is embarrassing.

I am also going to tell you that what finds its way onto Dashboard is jaded. It is not accurate.

Now, I appreciate they brought in a bunch of people and fine-tuned it or whatever, and saved the day or did their best to save the day.

As members of this committee, we, of course, have a responsibility to conduct oversight to ensure that hard-earned tax dollars of millions of Americans are spent appropriately, thoughtfully, wisely.

It drives me crazy that deserving people are not getting it. Undeserving people are fraudulently claiming it.

We cannot justify that, and if that can be fixed, and I believe it can quite easily be fixed, we in Congress should be fixing it.

20 percent of the earned income tax credit under your own analysis, 20 percent of the payments each year are improperly paid out.

I want every person in America who is entitled to receive it under the law to get it.

It makes no sense to me. Like I said, it drives me crazy. It is such a waste of money.

I do not want one single American who is entitled to a tax credit not to get it.

Would it help to just require that the name of the person, the individual involved that qualifies for that credit be listed together with a social security number?

It struck me as arbitrary and capricious.

I was not aware of this--that the IRS now has a rule that if, I think to paraphrase his testimony, if you are using less than 40 percent of your resources for 'political activity,' then, man, your application zips on through.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my views.

Now again, to the average American, the thought that you would--not you, but the IRS--would award an employee who is not paying their taxes is just incomprehensible.

Senator Johanns. Mr. Commissioner, in February you made the decision to spend $62.5 million in fiscal year 2014 funds to pay out performance awards.

I cannot imagine as the Secretary of Agriculture walking into OMB and saying to them, I want half of every increase in discretionary dollars in agriculture.

Well, if I was at 41 percent and I were a private citizen out there, I would be hollering like crazy.