Charles Boustany

I am now pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts).

Let me first express my support for moving forward with fundamental tax reform.

As a heart surgeon, I had the tremendous privilege of operating on thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, and I can tell you patient by patient perhaps better than anybody in this room, I understand the value of the Medicare program and the…

Whether through error or outright fraud, overpayments across the government are a substantial problem costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars each year.

I want to thank all the witnesses for being here today, and providing testimony.

I am happy that this hearing--this is a very sensitive program, and we think when it is effective it really has pulled so many people out of poverty and given them the incentive to continue to work, rather than go on welfare.

This Committee has an obligation to examine all of the causes of the tax gap.

I want to make the statement that, yes, we have a tax gap.

I think you raise some important points, especially about after-the-fact and audits.

I stand for fairness in tax administration, and I stand for million of working American families.

This Subcommittee hearing will come to order. Good morning to everyone. I would like to welcome everyone to this morning's hearing on improper payments in the administration of refundable tax credits.

At a time of record level Federal deficits, the last thing the government can afford is to be hemorrhaging tens of billions of dollars in improper payments.

If we have a higher corporate tax rate, lowering corporate tax rates would obviously reduce some of that pressure on transfer pricing.

I would remind the gentleman that it is a little unseemly to impugn motives of Members of the Committee.

In the letter, he adamantly opposes H.R. 567.

That is what is driving the fiscal crisis at the State and at the local level.

They are not proposing anything to deal with rising health care costs. And that is just going to shift the burden more and more on working-class families throughout the Nation.

If we want to have a serious conversation about the fiscal hole we are facing at the State and Federal and local level, let us talk about the real cause of what is driving these budget deficits, which is rising health care costs.

There is no sense in doing it.

Thank you, Mr. Kurtter.

It is clear that there is not enough money set aside to meet future obligations.

But too often, State and local governments have not kept their end of the bargain and are failing to adequately fund employee pensions.

Too often, governments have deferred difficult choices by pushing obligations off into the future without responsibly saving for the day when those obligations are due.

Given that some have raised the specter of a Federal taxpayer bailout to cover the unfunded liabilities of these State and local plans, it is important for the Subcommittee to review this issue...

The Subcommittee needs to understand how public plans are currently calculating their assets and liabilities...