Michael Burgess: “tonight I want to add my voice to those of my fellow Representatives who are calling for increased efficiency in our…”

“tonight I want to add my voice to those of my fellow Representatives who are calling for increased efficiency in our Federal Government. Our group has taken the charge to protect precious taxpayer dollars by streamlining and improving our Federal Government. There are many important programs that are being hurt. There are expenditures which could have been handled with much greater care. With wise stewardship, we can ensure that public servants have more prudent oversight when allocating American taxpayer dollars for Federal programs. Mr. Speaker, in my previous life I was a simple country doctor. I want to share with my colleagues some astonishing examples of some of the extreme expenditures in the Medicare program. Over 90 percent of Medicare payments to community medical health centers in five States, $229 million, were 'unallowable or highly questionable.' Medicare paid roughly $20 million to dead beneficiaries between 1999 and 2000. Some of these benefits were distributed despite the fact that the Departments's database had the dates of death already logged in.”