Mario Diaz-Balart

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to commemorate the 75th birthday of Mr. James Wynne Hart. Born on September 10, 1928 Mr. James Wynne Hart has dedicated much of his life to spreading the word of God. For over thirty years, Mr. Hart served with distinction as a minister of the United Methodist Church. Having served pastorates in Vonore, Kingsport, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Tennessee, and in addition Bluefield, Virginia, Mr. Hart has been an integral part of the spiritual life of these communities. Despite his retirement from the Ministry, Mr. Hart continues to be active in his church, the Clyde United Methodist Church in North Carolina. Currently, Mr. Hart resides in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, with his beloved wife of 51 years, Mrs. Frances Cobb Hart. A graduate of Emory and Henry College in Abingdon, Virginia, Mr. Hart pursued and completed post-graduate studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to commemorate this man of conviction, principle, and God, on such a joyous occasion. I ask you to join me in congratulating Mr. James Wynne Hart on his 75th birthday, and in wishing him and his wife, many more years of happiness and accomplishment.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today's Washington Waste Watch highlights the vast amount of waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the government purchase card and travel card programs. Mr. Speaker, such waste steals from the hard-working taxpayers in order to line the pockets of some career bureaucrats who seek to profit from the obviously broken system. Mr. Speaker, Americans should and would be outraged at the consistent abuse of their tax dollars within the purchase card and travel card program. These cards are paid for by the taxpayers, and they are supposed to be used, obviously, for official government business. However, Mr. Speaker, I think taxpayers would be horrified and outraged of the fact that these cards have purchased, among other things, Elvis Presley pictures, vacations and cruises, designer leather goods, Internet pornography, power tools and toys, music, designer clothing, luggage, fine china, jewelry, escort services, electronics, and televisions and even a pet dog. And yet our friends on the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, insist still on sometimes introducing bills to raise taxes to do more of this, Mr. Speaker? If this abuse, Mr. Speaker, happened within the private sector, these individuals would clearly get thrown out of their jobs and in many cases would be turned over to law enforcement agencies. But when it is the taxpayers who are paying for it, when it is the taxpayers who are footing the bill, these people do not lose their jobs. They just stay in their careers. Many times they get their annual pay increases. Very few of these employees, Mr. Speaker, are ever appropriately disciplined for this improper use of purchase cards and travel cards. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I will introduce the Purchase Card and Travel Card Accountability Act of 2003, which will create a uniform system of accountability for all Federal agencies. This system will include repayment to the Federal agencies by those who have used those cards incorrectly. It would also, furthermore, ask the inspector general to report regularly to Congress on disciplinary actions taken against employees for abuse of purchase cards and travel cards, and, yes, it will also create a uniform system of accountability for all Federal agencies, which will include termination. Only, Mr. Speaker, in the Federal Government, a place where billions of dollars, billions of dollars, are just lost every year, can people go shopping with a card that the taxpayer pays for on things, as I said, for china and designer leather products, $163,000, for example, worth of designer leather goods and a billiard table, and nothing happens. And, again, the Democrats want to raise taxes to do more of this? Mr. Speaker, for too long the bureaucracy have been given free rein to do what they want with taxpayers' money with no accountability. That is why we are filing this bill, Mr. Speaker. Purchase cards provide a great avenue to continue this waste. The American taxpayers deserve better. They should not support irresponsible spending. They do not support it.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am here as a member of the Washington waste watchers group, and I am here to focus on irresponsible spending on funds that miss the beneficiary and then go elsewhere. Today's Washington waste watch, Mr. Speaker, highlights the taxpayer dollars that are sent to people other than those who they are intended to go for, and those are dollars that are supposed to go for certain beneficiaries of certain programs. Americans should and would be shocked to know that their tax dollars are being sent to Washington, that they are funding benefits for dead people or prisoners and millions of people that simply lie on their applications in order to receive benefits that they do not qualify for. The Washington bureaucracy, for example, is throwing away benefits that taxpayers spend their hard-earned money to fund and money that they send to D.C. Mr. Speaker, for example, 23 percent of all students whose loans were discharged due to disability claims are actually holding jobs, and many borrowers who receive death discharges are found to be clearly alive, Mr. Speaker, and in many cases, earning wages, 23 percent. Medicaid, for example, paid $1.6 million to a Wisconsin transportation company for multiple round trips to, among others, dead people that they clearly were not transporting. Mr. Speaker, there are some good things going on, though. The Veterans Affairs Inspector General is using computer technology to identify individuals who may be defrauding the VA by receiving benefits that, again, for people they are receiving benefits for people that have already died. More than 5,500 possible cases have been identified and they have actually recovered $4.7 million, but over the past 5 years, for example, law enforcement has arrested almost 7,000 fugitives who were illegally receiving food stamps. They included 1,500 accused drug offenders, Mr. Speaker, 31 murderers, 45 sex offenders and child molesters, hundreds wanted for assault and robbery. Mr. Speaker, more than 25 percent of free and reduced price school lunches are being consumed by children whose families' income is way above what they should be to qualify for those programs, and then yet we do not have enough money, some people will say, for those that do qualify. The Veterans Affairs Inspector General estimated that roughly 13,700 incarcerated veterans have been paid about $100 million nationwide because the Department just does not have a way to figure out who are the prisoners or not. These funds, Mr. Speaker, could have paid for 45,000 monthly compensation benefits for disabled veterans who do deserve it and who do need those benefits. Last year, Mr. Speaker, $366 million in Pell grant awards were improperly given out because applicants basically understated their income. These funds wasted on people that do not qualify could have paid for over 84,000 Pell grants for people that do deserve those benefits. Mr. Speaker, President Bush is committed to eliminating these improper payments that plague these very important government programs. In fact, the President's management agenda has identified improper payments as one of the main elements within the administration's initiative to improve financial management. Finally, Mr. Speaker, the American people should not be fooled, and they are not fooled, when millions of dollars are being spent on benefits for dead people, millions of dollars going to people in prisons that clearly do not qualify, millions going to people that lie on their applications. And despite all this, Mr. Speaker, the Democrats still want to raise the hard-working American taxpayers' taxes.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the time of the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder).

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Chairman, the issues that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis) mentioned are still legal without his amendment. The rule change was to get rid of abuses, and the abuses we are talking about are very unfortunate. They include pedophilia and sex tourism, and those are the abuses that the new rules were implemented to stop. Let me be very clear. All these amendments that we are seeing today basically have one effect and one effect alone, to send more dollars to anti-American terrorist just 90 miles away from the United States who has said that he wants to destroy the United States, who has shot down unarmed American airplanes in international air space, and who has done everything in his power to enslave his people and to try to hurt the United States. All these amendments do is send more money to this terrorist regime at a time when we are at war with terrorists around the world. I agree with our President when he said you are either with us or with the terrorists. These amendments, with all due respect, unfortunately, are sending more funds to a terrorist regime and this particular amendment gets rid of some regulations to stop abuse, including those that go to Cuba with the excuse of going for educational reasons, and they go unfortunately in many cases for sexual tourism, including the most tragic and savage of them all, including pedophilia, which is sanctioned by the government of Cuba.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Chairman, just to respond to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis), Cuba does receive medical equipment. The U.S. can send medical equipment. The gentlewoman might want to look at the law before she speaks in front of us. Mr. Chairman, nobody wants to help the Cuban people more than the families of those Cuban people. And by the way, no one wants to help those people more than those Members who represent the families of those Cuban people here in Congress, and a few of us represent the bulk of them, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart) and myself, and we get elected by those family members that these Members of Congress are saying that they want to help. But what they understand is there is only one solution for the suffering of the Cuban people, and that is getting rid of the anti- American terrorist dictator, Fidel Castro. When we send more money that has to be sent to the government stores and goes to the government coffers so they can further their terrorist activities, that does not help the United States of America. It makes no sense to help fund a terrorist regime.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I am actually amazed that we are even here discussing this issue. We are right now in the midst of a war against terrorism. Should we take steps that help fund anti-American terrorist states, particularly one that is just 90 miles away from the United States? Mr. Chairman, right after 9-11 during the joint session of Congress, President Bush spoke to Congress and he said ``Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.'' And yet, we are discussing an amendment that would provide billions of dollars to a terrorist anti-American regime, just 90 miles away from the United States. Mr. Chairman, I hear, well, but we do business with China. Mr. Chairman, there are seven nations on the list of terrorist countries: Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, I guess that one is no longer on the list, and Cuba, a terrorist, anti-American thug just 90 miles away from the United States. But yet I hear, well, but if he had money, if he only had money, he would change. He would be different. He would do really good things with the people of Cuba and also would become a friendly nation. But, Mr. Chairman, what did Mr. Castro, that terrorist thug, do when he did have money, when the Soviet Union gave him the funds, the billions of dollars that now this amendment hopes to replace? What did he do? He had troops in Africa. He was helping terrorists in Africa. He had troops in Grenada, and the U.S. actually invaded Grenada to liberate those people and there were Cuban troops there, terrorist Cuban troops there supporting that Communist regime. He was helping to fight democracies in Latin America. He was funding troops throughout the world. That is what he did when he had money. Those who say the embargo has not worked, it sure has worked for the interests of the United States of America, because that man is not doing what he was doing: exporting terrorism. Now, he is limited, he is limited. But this amendment wants to give him billions of dollars so he can do what he does best: terrorism, anti-American terrorist activities. This is amazing to me, Mr. Chairman, that we would be discussing it right now. The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt) said we cannot believe what Castro says. I do not believe, I would say to the gentleman, what Castro says. I believe his deeds. Yes, he says that he wants to get rid of the embargo. Yes, he says that he wants to get rid of the travel ban. And yes, he congratulates the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake) and others when he helped him in doing that. But his deeds also show that, Mr. Chairman. Here, for example, he has sent out hundreds of thousands of flyers to travel agents, spending thousands and thousands of dollars on glitzy brochures saying, please get rid of the travel ban. No, the record is clear. Let us not fund anti-American terrorist 90 miles away. Let us not fund a person who has said in Iran that he wants to get the United States to be on its knees. Let us not fund an enemy of the American people 90 miles away. Let us not support this amendment. Let us stand tall with the Cuban people who want to be free. Let us stand with the President of the United States in his war against international terrorism. The way to do that is not by helping Castro, which is what this amendment will clearly do.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Chairman, this amendment brings funding authority back to Congress and ensures that major decisions about funding Everglades restoration, which by the way happens to be within the congressional district that I represent, that those decisions are made by Congress and not by government bureaucracies. Everglades National Park is one of our great Nation's greatest national treasures, and current funding is critical to the future restoration of that treasure. The current bill language, Mr. Chairman, provides for a mandatory stoppage of funding based on water quality reports issued by the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Attorney General. This would empower Federal agencies to eliminate critical funding without congressional review, Mr. Chairman. Therefore I have offered this amendment with the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss) to ensure that any possible changing of the funding levels occurs through the constitutionally appropriate body, the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Appropriations Committee, not solely Federal agencies. This amendment eliminates the provision that provided Federal agencies with that authority to automatically cut funding based on their reports again without the legislative having any input. Mr. Chairman, I will continue to fight along with my other colleagues for adequate funding for Everglades restoration, and we will work with the State of Florida and the appropriate State and Federal agencies to ensure that this critical restoration project receives the necessary funds now and also in the future. I would, Mr. Chairman, though, want to thank some people that have worked with me on this: the gentleman from California (Chairman Dreier); the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss), whom I already mentioned; the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart); and the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young).

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, we have already heard from a number of my colleagues here regarding this new working group, the Washington Waste Watchers Group, to expose and to help root out waste, fraud, abuse, the double-talk that is so rampant up here in the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, I am relatively new here, as you well know. This is my first term. What I have found when I got here is a number of interesting things. Number one is how here in Washington when you see huge increases in government spending, some on the Democratic side call that cuts. How we have found in a very short period of time, millions? No, Mr. Speaker, not millions, billions of dollars of wasted, of lost taxpayers' money, money that is being robbed from the taxpayer. And also, Mr. Speaker, that money is also being robbed from the people that are dependent on the services of government. It is money that is being robbed from the students, money that is being robbed from the teachers, from the law enforcement officers, from our brave men and women in uniform. While we heard some of my colleagues specifically mention some of those billions of dollars worth of overpayments, our dear friends in the minority party propose as a solution this year on this floor $890 billion in more government spending. Mr. Speaker, while my colleagues here mention billions of dollars of lost money, money that has evaporated with zero accountability, our good friends in the minority party propose as a solution to spend another $890 billion of the hard- working American people. Take it from them, Mr. Speaker, and bring it up here so we can waste, we can misspend, we can lose and we can hire more bureaucracy. Mr. Speaker, while we heard from some of my colleagues, Republican colleagues, about improper payments, billions of dollars of improper payments, some going for dead people that did not then go to serve, for example, our seniors, our friends in the minority party still propose increasing taxes to do more of that? Mr. Speaker, this group is a group of young, when I say young, some are younger than others, but new Members of this Chamber; and we want to see if we can change the culture a little bit here in Washington, D.C. We commend the President for trying to do the same thing, to change the culture from a culture of irresponsibility, of lack of accountability, of it doesn't matter because we will take more money from the hard-working American people to bring it up here. So it doesn't matter if we lose money, it doesn't matter if nobody is held accountable, it doesn't matter if nobody is indicted, it doesn't matter if nobody is imprisoned, it doesn't matter because we will just raise taxes on the American people, on those hard- working American people that are struggling to pay their bills. Mr. Speaker, again, we are here to announce that, with a number of colleagues, we are not going to sit by idly and watch as money is wasted, is thrown away, evaporates, is lost. We are here to come up with solutions, to first highlight the problem and then come up with solutions, specific solutions so that the American people can know that when they send us their valuable, hard-earned tax money, that money is going to be well spent on essential services for those that truly need it and not on more bureaucracy, on more misspending, on more evaporated dollars that nobody can find.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. If the gentleman would yield, again, what I am saying, though, is you cannot have it both ways. Because what I have heard, and I know I am relatively new here, what I have heard consistently in the Committee on the Budget, is Republicans are not spending enough. Every single proposal, by the way, including the Blue Dog proposal, spends more. Yet my dear friend, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd), whom I respect immensely and whom I have a friendship with, now says that we are spending too much. Which one is it? Which one is it?

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Again, we have to talk about the facts. Let us talk about the facts. When our dear friends on the Democratic side just said a little while ago, kind of equating tax cuts with government spending, the thing that it really boils down to is what the differences are. There is a huge difference between more government spending and tax cuts. More government spending are Washington bureaucrats spending the taxpayers' money. Tax cuts is allowing taxpayers of this country, hard-working men and women of our country, and small businesses, to keep more of their money. So we have a huge philosophical difference when my colleagues equate tax cuts with more government.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if I could reclaim the time, I did not support the Blue Dog budget because it increased taxes, and those are the facts. I did not support the Blue Dog budget because it raised taxes on hard-working American people to fund more bureaucracy and more bureaucrats, while ours cut taxes. I did not support the Blue Dog budget because it did not make the tax cuts permanent. You better believe I did not support it. I am asking a specific question which I cannot get a specific answer to because we keep hearing two different sides of the solution. None of the Democrats supported the 1 percent cut on waste, fraud, and abuse. Those are the facts. That is the reality. This is the party that has got a balanced budget, that cuts taxes on the working people, that does not raise taxes, and, unfortunately, the Blue Dog budget did. Now, when you strip that budget down, it is not a Blue Dog budget, it is just a dog budget, it is a sad dog budget because it increases taxes on the American people to fund more bureaucracy. I think, again, if you want to work together, support, for example, that 1 percent tax cut on fraud and abuse that none of you, none of you did in committee. Those are the facts.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, again, I agree that we should look at positive ways to agree. I would like to yield 10 seconds to anybody there who will answer: Would you all agree to that 1 percent cut that we tried to do? Would you vote for it?

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I do not have a lot of time, but you did not vote for it, you did not support it.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Does the gentleman recall if he got any Democratic support for that?

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, we heard about some things where we could work together. I agree with the gentleman. My Democrat colleagues cannot have it both ways. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot on one side of your mouth say that we are not spending enough and, on the other side of your mouth, when there are no votes on the table, say that we are spending too much, which we keep hearing from our colleagues on the Democrat side. My colleagues will recall a couple of things that the gentleman may agree with me on. The chairman of the Committee on the Budget wanted to do a 1 percent cut in waste, fraud, and abuse.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. If the gentleman will yield for a second, it is nice to say those things; but on the floor we had votes on the budget, and the votes on the budget were a partisan vote. I may be wrong, but I think the Blue Dogs voted against the Republican budget, and the argument there was that we were not spending enough money. If you look at the Blue Dog budget, here is the Blue Dog budget. In 2006 to 2011, it raises taxes by $124 billion. By the way, it would not make the tax cuts permanent. There is the vote. So it is very nice. We can say anything and it kind of gets diffused in the air, but the facts are the facts. I am glad you said that, sir. Let us talk about the facts. The votes were there. We had two budgets: a much larger budget, the Democratic budget, and a smaller, tighter, more responsible budget, and you all did not vote for that. Those are the facts.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. If I may, I think one of the things you cannot do is have it both ways. You cannot come to the floor of the House one day and accuse the Republicans of not spending enough, which was exactly what happened here during the Medicare bill debate, which is exactly what happened during the budget debate; and then later say we are spending too much. Which one is it? Do you believe that we are spending too little, or do you believe we are spending too much? I happen to believe that, if anything, we are spending too much. But I think what you cannot do is have it both ways. That is what I kept hearing, since I have been here, anyway.

Mr. DIAZ-BALART

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sweeney).

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, small businesses across the country face no greater challenge than access to affordable health care. Too often, small businesses are forced to sacrifice growth in order to provide health care to the employees. Many others are unable to meet the rising costs of health care and force their employees to go without altogether. Over 60 percent of the uninsured in America are small business owners and employees. Not only are high costs an enormous burden on small businesses and a large danger for employees, but also an unfortunate disincentive for growth. Capital lost on high health care costs limit economic growth of countless small businesses throughout the nation. No matter the size of business, all Americans deserve access to affordable health care. Small businesses should have the same access to health care as their counterparts in large corporations and unions. There is no rationale for punishing America's entrepreneurs by blocking the access to affordable health care. As an original cosponsor of the Small Business Health Fairness Act (H.R. 660), I stand committed to ending this great injustice to America's small businesses. As the true foundation of America's economy, it is essential to ensure small businesses have every incentive to grow and succeed. Without affordable health care for employees, small businesses will continue to be burdened with unfair health care costs resulting in reduced growth. Associated health plans will allow small businesses owners to join together in order to purchase health care for their families and employees. This will not only lower health care costs for small business owners, but will also provide greater choice. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 660 and helping the 41 million uninsured Americans receive access to affordable health care.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I was unavoidably detained in a meeting during rollcall votes 282 and 283. S. 342 and S. Con. Res. 43 are important pieces of legislation that I strongly support. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted ``yes'' on rollcall vote 282 and rollcall vote 283.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor to welcome the building of a new university and, in fact, a new town in the district I represent. Ave Maria University--Florida's newest university--will be an academic center of international scope founded on Catholic religious beliefs and committed to developing a Division I caliber athletics program. The university plans to grow to about 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students and will have a full curriculum of traditional liberal arts, sciences and engineering programs, as well as a comprehensive graduate program offering masters and doctoral degrees. The campus will cover approximately 750 acres, including a world class golf course in eastern Collier County. The university, which has already begun construction on an interim campus, is seeded with approximately $200 million from Thomas S. Monaghan, Domino's Pizza Founder and former owner of the Detroit Tigers, who is also chairman of the Ave Maria Foundation in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The town that will house Ave Maria University will be developed through a joint partnership between the university and the Barron Collier Companies. This town will produce endless economic benefit for surrounding communities and will serve as a great home for Florida's newest university. Ave Maria University will bring academic excellence, athletic competition and strong Catholic principles to one of America's fastest growing communities. As America congratulates Florida on the creation of the nation's newest Catholic university, I welcome this wonderful addition to Southern Florida. This university will provide endless opportunities for students seeking a first-rate education within a Catholic university setting. Additionally, Ave Maria University will bring growth to the surrounding areas and a great potential to recruit superior faculty and staff. While Ave Maria University is one of my newest constituents, I speak on behalf of the 25th Congressional District, South Florida and the entire state in congratulating Ave Maria University and welcoming the university and its students to Collier County.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Only $100 million. Ask the American people if that is just only $100 million on some pretty sad things. But it gets worse than that. And when we talk about these things, we get bashed by the Democrats. When we talk about, for example, we were mentioning facts before, and it is important to not just spew rhetoric, but bring in some facts to the discussion. Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government cannot account for, and we need to listen to this, the Federal Government cannot account for $17.3 billion it spent in the year 2001; $17 billion unaccounted for. Yet some criticize us when we talk about let us have some accountability. Let us not misspend. Let us look at ways that we can save some of this money. Mr. Speaker, $17 billion is not peanuts. That is a lot of money unaccounted for. The Federal Government made $20 billion in overpayments in the year 2001; $20 billion in overpayments, on people that were not qualified or things that should not have been funded. The Department of Housing and Urban Development made $3.3 billion, and I repeat, billion, with a B, billion dollars in overpayments in 2001, accounting for 10 percent of the Department's budget; 10 percent in overpayments, in waste. Yet some will tell us that there is not enough money up here; that we need to raise taxes on hard-working Americans; that we should not incentivize the economy by letting more hard-working Americans keep some of their money, no, because there is not enough money in D.C. Oh, of course not, when we misspend 10 percent of the Department's budget. But some will tell us the answer is, no problem. Do not worry about that. Let us just squeeze the American taxpayer a little bit more, a little bit harder, because you know something? It is okay, they will not mind, or they cannot yell loud enough, so let us squeeze them a little bit louder, a little bit tighter. No, no. It is time that we do not squeeze them anymore, so that we allow them to keep more of their money so that they can spend it and they can create jobs. If the gentleman will allow me, I would like to mention a couple of other examples. The Department of Agriculture was unable to account for $5 billion in receipts and expenditures; $5 billion. Medicare overpayments, overpayments totaled $12 billion in 2001; $12 billion. Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority has passed a Medicare prescription drug plan without raising taxes. We have done it. Actually, the House did it last year as well, but the other body refused to do so, but now we have done it again, and we are going to pass it again. Well, do we want to find where some of the money can come from? There is $12 billion in overpayments. That is money that is not going for the elderly that need it, that is not going for the elderly that deserve it, that is not going for the elderly who have paid into it. No, that is just waste. That is just waste. And that is unacceptable. That is immoral. Totally immoral. So, yes, we are going to do it. There has been a lot of rhetoric for 40 years; the other party has been talking about it. It took the Republican majority to pass it, and we have passed it again in the House, and we are going to do that; but we need to make sure that this kind of waste stops, stops, because that is our hardworking Americans who are paying for it. The food stamp program pays approximately $1.3 billion in overpayments each year. What can we do with that $1.3 billion for health care, for education, for defense, to incentivize our economy? A lot. And yet when we talk about these things, our friends on the Democratic party get upset. They say you cannot do that; you have to tax the American people more. Do not look at fraud, waste and abuse. Just tax the American people more. More than $8 billion is lost in erroneous earned income tax payments each year and again the list goes on and on and on, and we are not talking small amounts of money. If we were speaking about small amounts of money, that would be no excuse. We still have to stop it, because it is not government's money. It is the people's money, but what is even worse is we are talking about billions of dollars in misspent, misused, lost money. And some want to tax the American workers, tax the American family more to do more of this? I do not understand it.

Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, every time that I walk into this Chamber I am awed and I am overwhelmed, when you think of the history that has taken place here in this Chamber, in this hall, and the speeches that have also been proclaimed and stated within these walls. Tonight, Mr. Speaker, I heard some really eloquent speeches as well, some spectacularly eloquent speeches, some of them criticizing the job proposal that this House has passed, the job proposal plan that the President has proposed. I also heard, Mr. Speaker, some great examples of not letting the facts get in the way of the rhetoric. I have seen some wonderful examples here as to how to just disregard the facts and let us go forward with the rhetoric and hope that you can confuse people, Mr. Speaker. But the American people, Mr. Speaker, are not easily confused. The Jobs and Growth Tax Act, which is really based on the jobs and growth plan that we passed last week, is a comprehensive approach to creating jobs. We heard criticism after criticism after criticism of that plan; but what you will notice is that not once, not once, was a proposal spoken about, an alternative proposal, that created jobs. No. They criticized the plan that creates jobs, and, in its stead, proposed absolutely nothing. Again, the American people witnessed that here tonight. Yet the plan that we passed provides, for example, tax relief to American families and immediately eliminates burdensome and unfair taxes that provided huge obstacles to economic growth and job creation. The gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nussle) worked awfully hard to get through this House a plan that will create over 1.2 million jobs throughout the entire country by the end of next year. This was a specific proposal, not rhetoric. That is a specific proposal that this House passed. It creates, as a matter of fact, 45,000 new jobs in the State of Florida that I represent; next year, 45,000 jobs. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we heard no other proposal; just criticism, criticism of a plan that creates 1.2 million jobs. This plan that we passed that our dear friends in the minority love to criticize, and, yet, I repeat, have nothing to show other than criticism, this plan would put $550 billion in economic stimulus and job creation in this country. Then I heard something that I keep hearing time and time again, and it must be something that the Democratic Party's PR machine has told them to repeat time and time again, again regardless of the facts. They keep saying, oh, the plan that the House passed, the President's plan, cuts taxes on the rich. Let us again speak of the facts. I know that my dear friends on the Democratic side hate when you bring up the facts. They do not like the facts to be used. They do not want to permit the facts to confuse the rhetoric. But I think it is important to bring up some of those facts. The rich? Cut taxes on the rich? Twenty-three million small business owners will benefit from tax rate cuts in order to stimulate job growth; 23 million small business owners are going to have their taxes cut. Those are not the rich, those small business owners. Again, the facts, Mr. Speaker. The tax cut, for example, on dividend income and the capital gains tax cut will provide relief for the 50 percent of Americans who have invested in the stock market and 70 million Americans who own homes. Those are the facts. Yet what we have heard tonight, all the criticism, all the critiquing of the President's plan, of the plan we passed, with nothing else, no proposal, no alternative proposal, is just criticism based on innuendo, not based on the facts. Again, the President's job and growth plan, what we passed here in the House, will provide 1.2 million jobs next year. Those are the facts, not the rhetoric. The energy bill that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) spoke of here last week with me on the floor of this House will provide 750,000 new jobs. But yet both those initiatives our friends from the minority party object to; and they object to them but have no decent, good proposal, as opposed to what we have done. This is a good plan, because it does provide jobs. I was wondering, I see that the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kennedy) is here; and, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to the gentleman. Maybe he can try to shed some light on some of the facts, not on just empty rhetoric, some of the facts: why it is important that we do not just sit idly by and hope the economy gets better; why it is important to incentivize this economy; why it is important to go forward with the President's plan, with what this Congress passed, to make sure the millions of Americans can find good jobs; why it is important to not just sit back and pretend that things are okay, they are going to get better, and the solution is maybe to raise taxes; why it is important that we move forward. Mr. Speaker, maybe the gentleman can shed some light as to some of the rhetoric that has been heard before here tonight which does not conform with the facts.