Rep. Kelly Slams Disability Fraud, Stands Up for American Workers at Ways & Means Hearing
Rep. Kelly: “This is not government money” being abused – “this is taxpayer money”
WASHINGTON — Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA), a member of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, made the following remarks at today’s subcommittee hearing on the massive Social Security Disability Insurance fraud scheme recently uncovered in New York which could potentially cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. More information about the hearing and its participants can be found here.
Highlights of Rep. Kelly’s remarks:
“The debt owed from these overpayments has gone from $5.4 billion in 2010 to $6.1 billion in 2012. So I don’t want to identify it as only a half a percent. These are huge dollars and … I don’t want to minimize what we’re talking about by reducing it down to a percentage. A small percentage of a very large number is a very large number to the people I represent in Western Pennsylvania. These are hardworking American taxpayers that are funding this, this Social Security. They’re putting in 6.2 percent of every time they get paid and their employer is matching it. This is not government money — this is taxpayer money.”
“This is not Republicans versus Democrats. This is Republicans and Democrats working together to serve the American people. I get so damn mad when it becomes a political battle. This is not a political issue. … We are defrauding the American people — we are not defrauding Social Security. And we better start to understand who we represent here. I did not get elected by all Republicans or all Democrats.”
“Is this who we’ve raised? A group of people that look at a program and think, ‘I can game this. I think I can crawl under the wire here. I think I can do this and take advantage of the government.’ No, no, no, no, no. You took advantage of every woman and man who gets out of bed in the morning, puts their feet on the floor, and goes to a job. … And if we think this is about defrauding the government, we are really way off line on this. We’d better wake up and smell the coffee. No wonder the American people have such a low opinion of us. We are not protecting them.”
“The purpose of us being here isn’t to go after you [witnesses]. It’s to make sure that we protect the integrity of the system for the American taxpayers.”
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