John Spratt: “we are as concerned as any Member of this Congress about squeezing out waste, fraud and abuse. But we sincerely doubt…”

“we are as concerned as any Member of this Congress about squeezing out waste, fraud and abuse. But we sincerely doubt that you can squeeze, ferret out $265 billion in waste, fraud and abuse. If you can, I would say to my colleague, where has the Republican majority been for the last 8 years during which you have controlled the House. Instead of having oversight, we have had overlook, if there is that much waste being accumulated in the Federal operation at this time. Here are the cuts that are entailed by this resolution as it goes to conference: Agriculture, $18 billion. Waste, fraud and abuse, where is it? Education and the Workforce, Energy and Commerce, 107; most of that is Medicaid. Medicare, $62 billion. The total amount, $265 billion. If you required these reconciliation savings to be accomplished and laid on the table before you passed your budget resolution, before you passed your tax cuts, they would have more credibility. But they lack credibility with me because if you are going to go ahead and have the tax cuts premised on adopting all of these $265 billion in savings just a few months afterwards, I do not think they will ever come to pass.”