Legislation to Combat Medicare Fraud

Today I'm calling on Congress to pass legislation

to address fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security

programs. First, Congress must impose mandatory minimum

sentences on fraudsters who steal from

critical benefit programs designed to take care of the sick, feed

the hungry, care for our children, and protect our senior

citizens' retirements.

Under our proposal,

probation is no longer an option for the fraudsters.

If you steal from the American people, you will go to

prison and for a long period of time,

and the more you steal, the longer you'll

stay in that prison. Not only that, but if you're

a convicted fraudster who gets caught stealing from

the American people a second time, your sentence will be

doubled.

Second, Congress must make sure that crooked and

corrupt politicians who willfully turn a blind eye to

fraud finally face real consequences.

Under our proposal, if a state or local politician knows about

fraud and has the ability to stop it, but does

nothing about it, they can be personally liable for the full

loss

of

the American taxpayers' money

that they should have stopped and they should have saved.

This legislative proposal will make fraudsters think long and

hard before they keep stealing from the American people,

and will make crooked and corrupt politicians think

also long and hard before they ignore

fraud that they can

stop and that they should stop. So from now

on, fraudsters, we're watching you.