Mike Levin: “I have never seen as much fraud, waste, and abuse. There is no analogy in the history of this country, I don't believe…”

“I have never seen as much fraud, waste, and abuse. There is no analogy in the history of this country, I don't believe, for the amount of fraud and waste and abuse that is taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don't think our committee could do anything else if we took on that responsibility. I think we would be having hearings every week, when we need to have hearings on all of the other matters under our jurisdiction. I don't know that we could do an authorization bill properly if we took on this responsibility. It is too massive. I wonder whether the Senator can give me one example in American history where there has been this degree of waste, fraud, and abuse. We now see a massive investigation taking place because of the alleged fraud of a number of members of the armed services. I cannot remember anything comparable. This is a massive undertaking. It is most appropriate that we have a special commission to do that. There is no reason why they should not work in concert with an IG. We don't want them overlapping and conflicting. The issue is whether we are going to take on this responsibility one way or the other. This is only one practical way to do it. I wish we had the resources and time in our committee to do the kind of oversight that has to be done relative to Iraq. To me, it has been the most shocking abuse of the taxpayers' dollars that we have seen.”