Cliff Stearns: “one of my goals since first being elected to serve in Congress has been to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the…”

“one of my goals since first being elected to serve in Congress has been to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal Government and many of its programs. While we have been successful in identifying and reducing wasteful spending, there is still too much unnecessary spending that needs to be eliminated. This came out in a report by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs entitled Government at the Brink that outlines the urgent Federal Government management problems facing the Bush administration. They cited four core problems that exist: One, work force management; two, financial management information; three, technology management; and, four, overlap and duplication. Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee was the chairman of this committee when this report was compiled. I want to share with my colleagues what his committee found. A chief source of the information was based on reports issued by the General Accounting Office, the GAO, and agency inspectors general, or the IGs. Now, my colleagues might ask, just how much money are we talking about. Well, according to GAO, we are talking about at least $35 billion a year, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. The GAO reported that the Medicare program wastes $12 billion every year on improper payments. According to the GAO, 10 percent of total health care costs are lost to wasteful spending. What came to light about the misappropriation of our tax dollars is downright alarming.”