From 1983, when the looting began, politically "well-connected" people, most of them Conservative Republicans or Conservative Democrats (many of whom are now Republicans), looted FEDERALLY-INSURED U.S. Savings and Loans of hundreds of billions of dollars. The Justice Department and the FBI, staffed during the Reagan and Bush administrations with Republican operatives in key positions, looked the other way. Unfortunately, many of these operatives remain in place today. By the end of the first Bush Administration in January 1993, the American People were confronted with a National Debt of $4 trillion dollars, up from $909 billion dollars when Ronald Reagan was sworn into office in January 1981.

A considerable amount of the $4 trillion dollars -- $411.6 billion dollars -- was the Reagan-Bush legacy from the looting of the S&Ls.

During the Reagan Administration, the "well-connected" people began to look for additional taxpayer-paid programs to loot. Beginning in the mid-1980's, a number of them had realized that the U.S. health care system was ready to be plucked -- annual health care expenditures were $390 billion in 1984, $429 billion in 1985, $461 billion in 1986, and over half a trillion dollars ($501 billion) in 1987. The U.S. health care system was also ripe for exploitation because 95.5% of the U.S. health care bill came from private citizens, either as health care consumers or as local, state and federal taxpayers. No large business corporations had a vested interest in maintaining a cost-effective and efficient health care system, in fact they had a considerable interest in very loose financial controls that would permit the money cow to be milked.

The initial targets were the federal Medicare program and the federal/state Medicaid programs. Medicaid in particular was an excellent target for waste, fraud, and abuse -- it actually benefited some state governments to "play the system" and to defraud the Federal taxpayer through through overcharges, dubious accounting and fraudulent billings. But the states were soon joined by the "well-connected" people of the S&L looting who used all of these lucrative techniques, plus all of the other fraud and embezzlement techniques developed during the S&L lootings. The Reagan (and later the Bush) Department of Health and Human Services, charged with curbing fraud and abuse in its programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, were less than enthusiastic about going after fraud and abuse, and besides, had actually lost enforcement personnel during this time.

By 1984, the combined Medicare/Medicaid bill was about 27% of total U.S. health expenditures of $390 billion dollars -- almost $105 billion dollars. It remained at about this percentage of 27% until 1991 when it increased to $215 billion dollars, 28% of the total health expenditures of almost $767 billion dollars. By the second year of the Clinton Administration in 1994, Medicare and Medicaid was about 32% ($301.5 billion) of total expenditures ($947.8. billion).

In 1993, the Clinton Administration came into office, and brought with it an Attorney General and a Secretary of Health and Human Services who were intent on curbing fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. But in the case of Attorney General Reno, it was difficult to move forward because she had to keep an eye on her back at all times.

In 1994, the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Here they immediately began writing laws and manipulating appropriations to protect those providers of Medicare and Medicaid who were abusing both programs, who were creating most of the waste in both programs and who were defrauding the American People. There were fraudulent billings from the HMOs and health insurance companies; there were fraudulent bills from businesses claiming to provide Home Health Care, to provide medical equipment, and to provide other services to HHS for Medicare and Medicaid.

Few people know that HHS has 72 private insurance companies who do the actual billing for Medicare. And even here there was evidence of extensive fraud.

By this time, the looters of Medicare and Medicaid had become highly sophisticated. By 1995, as the Attorney General said in October of that year, some experts were telling her that the amount of fraud in the American health care system amounted to $100 billion dollars a year.

In advocating much stricter anti-fraud laws and law enforcement in the U.S. health care system in 1995, three Democratic Senators claimed that Medicare was being looted of $18 billion dollars a year and Medicaid of $16 billion dollars a year.

In 1995 dollars, the cost of the Medicare was $185.3 billion dollars. If $18 billion of this was being looted, then the percentage of fraud in that program was about 9.71 percent. In that same year, the Medicaid program cost federal and state taxpayers $146 billion dollars. If $16 billion a year was being looted from the Medicaid program, then the annual percentage of fraud was 10.96 percent. Estimates of the total amount of fraud in the U.S. health care system was $100 billion dollars. Subtracting $34 billion ($18 billion plus $16 billion) for fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, we left with a sum of $66 billion dollars for the remaining part of the U.S. health care costs. Subtracting the $331.4 billion cost of the Medicare and Medicaid programs from the total health expenditures of $993.3 billion, this would indicate $66 billion dollars of fraud for the remaining costs of $661.8 billion -- about 9.97 percent.

And the amount of fraud in both programs was growing.

The American People are not stupid, they are uninformed. In 1995, the Republicans in Congress were investigating Whitewater, TravelGATE and a variety of other GATES. The Mainstream Media, per its instructions, was reporting on Whitewater, TravelGATE and a variety of other GATES. That was the intention. If the Mainstream Media had reported on the Reno-Shalala press conference and HR.2389 to the extent that they were covering baseless allegations about the Clintons and the Clinton White House, the massive fraud being perpetuated on the American People might have been stopped in that year. If the Mainstream Media and the Washington Press Corps had honestly reported on the Seven Year Balanced Budget Act of 1995, the fraud might have been stopped in its tracks. They did not, and their lack of action was deliberate.

At first, S.1357, the Senate version of HR.2491/S.1357, the Seven Year Balanced Budget Act of 1995 contained some REAL anti-fraud language by Senator Cohen (R-ME) and two Democratic Senators. This was in contrast to the language in HR.2491 and in other House Republican bills which actually facilitated fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. After reading some of proposed legislation from the House, Senator Harkin (D-IA) and Senator Biden (D-DE) continued to support the Cohen language, but in addition they tried and failed to incorporate MUCH STRONGER ANTI-FRAUD provisions into S.1357 (see below).

The Republican Leadership in the House and in the Senate were very reluctant to let even the Cohen anti-fraud provisions become law and the Cohen language was evidently removed or watered down in the Senate bill. This may explain why Cohen voted with the Democrats against passage of the Seven Year Balanced Budget Act of 1995 on October 28th.

The only anti-fraud vote on S.1357 was Senate Roll Call vote 510 on October 26, 1995. Senator Harkin (D-IA) had proposed an amendment to the Senate version of the Seven Year Balanced Budget Act of 1995 which called for strong measures in dealing with waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Senator Harkin noted that he had been conducting hearings on Medicare and Medicaid fraud for five years, since 1990, and that by 1995, the amount of fraud in Medicare alone was about $18 billion dollars a year (it was $20.5 billion dollars a year by 1997). Senator Biden noted that fraud in Medicaid at the Federal and State levels was $16 billion dollars a year by 1995. Thus in both programs, the amount of fraud was between $33 billion to $34 billion a year by 1995, and was increasing each year. It should be noted that if we multiply $35 billion times 7, we arrive at a figure of $245 billion dollars over seven years, almost as much as the $270 billion over seven years being cut from the Medicare program by the Republicans in Congress.

In Senate Roll Call Vote 510 on October 26th, the Harkin amendment lost on a vote of 43 AYES, (43 Democrats, or 93.5% of all Democrats voting) to 56 NAYS - (53 Republicans, 100% of all Republicans voting, and 3 Democrats 6.5% of all Democrats voting.) The three Democrats who voted with the Republicans were Baucus (MT), Bradley (NJ), and Hollings (SC).

As far as I can determine, the anti-fraud legistlation Senator Cohen and a number of Democratic Senators attempted to insert into the final Senate bill, as passed, actually had been removed when S.1357 was incorporated into HR.2491. In any event, S.1357 was then incorporated into HR.2491 and was passed by the Senate in Roll Call Vote 556 on October 28th, 1995 on a vote of 52 YEAS (52 Republicans, 98% of all Republicans voting) to 47 NAYS (1 Republican - Senator Cohen (ME), and 46 Democrats, 100% of all Democrats voting.)

There were differences between the original House bill and the Senate bill that had just passed the Senate. These had to be resolved in a House-Senate conference, and as expected, the Republican leaderships in the House and Senate got what they wanted in the bill. Fortunately, in this case, HR.2491 then went on to the President who did understand its content and who vetoed this travesty on December 6th, 1995. But the American People should have been informed by the Media of the contents of this bill, and in particular, that language which encouraged, and in fact, facilitated WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

The American People might have understood the battle over the Seven Year Balanced Budget Act of 1995, if it had been covered by the Mainstream Media in day-to-day coverage by national, regional, and local newspapers. This did not happen. For example, did the American People know that the Senate version of the 1995 BBA contained provisions that took $40 billion dollars out of pension trust funds? This affected millions of Americans enrolled in those plans. Representative Sabo (D-MN) understood what was in the Senate bill and made a motion to instruct the House conferees to remove this and other obnoxious provisions from HR.2491 before the final bill came out of the House-Senate conference.

Instead, in House Roll Call vote 744 on October 30,1995, the Sabo motion was defeated on a vote of 198 YEAS (6R, 191D, 1 I) to 219 NAYS (218R, 1D). Thus, of the 224 Republicans voting, 218 (97.3%) voted AGAINST the Sabo motion, and 6 (2.7%) voted FOR it. Of the 192 Democrats voting, 191 (99.5%) voted FOR the Sabo motion, and 1 (0.5%) voted AGAINST it. Did the millions of affected Americans know and understand what had happened? No.

Did the American People know that Senator Rockefeller's (D-WV) motion to instruct the Senate conferees not to cut Medicare by more than $89 billion, thus insuring the solvency of the Medicare Fund until 2006, was voted down in Senate Roll Call vote 571 on a vote of 51 AYES (50R, 1D) to 46 NAYS (1R, 45D). In this vote, taken on November 13th, 1995, Senator Nunn (D-GA) voted with 51 Republicans (98% of those voting), and Senator Specter (R-PA) voted with 45 Democrats (98% of those voting). Did the millions of affected Americans know and understand what had happened? No.

On November 13th, 1995, there was a Senate Roll Call vote to table (to kill) a motion by Senator Kennedy to instruct the Senate conferees to the House-Senate conference to " insist upon removal of the following provisions included in the House or Senate bills"

"(1) Provisions eliminating requirements in the Medicaid law providing drug discounts to State Medicaid programs, public hospitals, other programs or facilities serving low income people, such as community and migrant health centers, health care for the homeless centers, Ryan White AIDS programs, pediatric AIDS demonstrations, family planning clinics, black lung clinics, and public housing clinics;"

"(2) Provisions benefitting unscrupulous health care providers at the expense of Medicare and private patients by:

(a) repealing current prohibitions against additional charges (balance billing) by physicians and other providers rendering services to Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in private insurance plans;

(b) weakening current statutory provisions to prevent and combat fraud and abuse, including such abusive practices as self-referral and kickbacks, and such proposals to weaken anti-fraud efforts as establishing more lenient standards for imposing civil money penalties;"

"(3) Provisions threatening the quality and affordability of care in nursing homes by:

(a) weakening or eliminating Federal nursing home standards by repealing such standards or allowing state waivers from such standards and Federal enforcement of such standards; (b) repealing prohibitions against nursing homes charging Medicaid patients fees for covered services in addition to the payment made by the State; (c) repealing current prohibitions against States placing liens on the homes of nursing home patients."

"(4) Provisions providing greater or lesser Medicaid spending in states based upon the votes needed for the passage of legislation rather than the needs of the people in those states."

In Senate Roll Call vote 573, 3 Republicans -- Cohen (ME), Snowe (ME), Specter (PA) -- joined with all 46 Democrats not to KILL the Kennedy motion on a vote of 48 YEAS to 49 NAYS.

Yet four days later, on November 17th, 1995, the Senate receded from all of this in Roll Call Vote 584 by a vote of 52 AYES (52R) to 47 NAYS (1R, 46D). Senator Cohen was the sole Republican voting with all of the Democrats.

Did the millions of affected Americans know and understand what had happened? No.

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Known Medicare and Medicaid OVERCHARGES were $488 million in 1996 alone.

Much of the information on the DEFRAUDING of the American Taxpayers by Health Care LOOTERS has been EASILY AVAILABLE to the Mainstream Media for years. People wishing to learn about fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and in the overall American health care system only need to read the semi-annual reports put out since 1995 by the Health and Human Services Inspector General, the dozens of General Accounting Office reports to Congress and the GAO testimony before Congress, and the Congressional Record itself. In the Congressional Record you will find the words of the Democratic members of Congress and a few brave Republicans, who have been trying to get STRONG ANTI-FRAUD legislation through the Republican-controlled Congress since 1995. The amount of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid since 1990 has been massive and the written material about it is equally massive. But it is as if this information NEVER EXISTED for the American People.

The LARGE-SCALE DEFRAUDING of the American Taxpayer in our national health care system since 1990 are a National Problem of great interest and concern to the American People. But for some reason, the Mainstream Media never collected this EASILY AVAILABLE information, never analyzed this information, and then never reported the whole story in understandable language to the American people. And they never reported on Republican legislation that actually facilitated fraud in these programs or the Democratic attempts to get STRONG ANTI-FRAUD legislation passed over the last five years.

The Mainstream Media have deliberately and systematically CENSORED this kind of news, therefore denying it to the American People. Since the late 1980's, when the politically "well-connected" turned their attention from looting the nation's Savings and Loans to looting the Federal Taxpayer-paid Medicare and Medicaid programs, we have been given bits and pieces of the story, but nothing has been written which is comprehensive enough and clear enough for the American People to understand. In point of fact, the looters have successfully used the inadequate existing laws and the loophole-ridden laws by the Gingrich Republicans to outgun U.S. law-enforcement authorities for years.

But as the law enforcement effort continued, the investigators and the prosecutors became more knowledgeable and were able to smell out more of the fraud perpetuated by the so-called "health care providers" in the American business community. However, existing laws had to be updated and improved, and the loopholes removed from other laws are carefully as they had been inserted during the legislative process since 1995. For this the HHS and the law enforcement agencies have turned to the Congress year after year for help. Attempts by the Democrats and a few brave Republicans in both Houses of Congress in 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 to get STRONG ANTI-FRAUD legislation through the Congress failed. There were a few successes, but nothing on the scale required.

For the looters of our health care system were as knowledgeable as the HHS and law enforcement circles about the percent of audits scheduled, who would be audited and when, fraud-detecting software and all of the other techniques used to detect fraud, waste and abuse in those programs. As fast as one loophole was plugged, another enterprising criminal would open up another. And not only were criminals looting Medicare and Medicaid, at least twenty states had exploited loopholes in the existing laws to siphon off billions of dollars for state programs -- loopholes which are now being closed.

What are the types of fraud? A July 2000 GAO report named four highly successful kinds of frauds -- the "Rent-a-Patient" Fraud, the "Pill Mill" Fraud, the "Drop Box" Fraud, and the "Third Party Billing" Fraud. A little personal research in the HHS IG's semi-annual reports and the dozens of GAO reports the Mainstream Media somehow missed show many more. This includes Home Health Care Fraud; Rehabilitation Hospital Fraud; HMO Fraud in two flavors -- one for the 6 million Medicare beneficiaries in HMOs, and one for the tens of millions of other Americans enrolled in non-Medicare HMOs. Added to this in the Medicare and Medicaid programs are Teaching Hospital Fraud; Sham Medical Facilities Fraud; Fraud involving uneccessary Medical treatment or overtreatment to hike billing charges, and Fraudulent charges for services actually not rendered, which accounted for 37% of all DETECTED fraud since 1990. Then there is the falsification of medical records Fraud; billing coding Fraud, in which the AMA billing codes in a medical bill are somehow replaced with much more lucrative billing codes; Fraudulent cost reporting; Kickbacks and accepting or soliciting bribes, and many, many more.

Could it be that the powerful private interests in this country being protected by the Mainstream Media were and are profiting from the looting of these Federal-taxpayer finance programs just as they profited from the looting of the S&L's? Could it be that the Mainstream Media itself was and is profiting from this looting?

The American People will never know.

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In contrast to HR.2389 and the other Republican legislation of 1995 which actually FACILITATED WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the Democratic-sponsored HR.1770 of 1997 proposed STRONG ANTI-FRAUD laws. That is probably why it was killed by the Republicans:

As written, HR. 1770 " Amends title XI of the Social Security Act (SSA) to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to exclude from the Medicare program an entity controlled by a family member or household member of a sanctioned individual."

(Sec. 102) Authorizes the Secretary to impose civil monetary penalties (fines) for kickback violations, and for persons that contract with individuals excluded from participation in a Federal health care program, as well as for services ordered or prescribed by an excluded individual or entity.

(Sec. 105) Amends SSA title XI to subject to fines false certification of eligibility to receive partial hospitalization and hospice services.

(Sec. 106) Extends subpoena and injunction authority to enforcement of the exclusion of certain individuals and entities from participation in Medicare and State health care programs.

(Sec. 107) Repeals the requirement that kickbacks and other specified acts involving Federal health care programs be willful as well as knowing to be subject to criminal penalties (thus allowing criminal penalties for knowing violations, even if not willful).

(Sec. 108) Repeals the exception for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, thus subjecting it to criminal penalties for kickbacks and other specified acts involving Federal health care programs.

(Sec. 109) Amends SSA title XVIII to modify the application of fines requirements to nonparticipating physicians for excess charges with respect to Medicare part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance) enrollees.

(Sec. 110) Makes physicians working at or on-call at specialty hospitals liable for certain fines for failure to comply with Medicare requirements concerning examination, treatment, or transfer of emergency patients and women in labor.

(Sec. 111) Amends SSA title XI to expand the application of criminal penalty authority for kickbacks to all health care benefit programs.

Authorizes the Attorney General: (1) to seek to impose civil penalties and treble damages on any person for certain criminal acts with respect to a Federal health care program; and (2) to petition a U.S. district court for an injunction prohibiting any person from engaging in such criminal acts.

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In October 2000, the British Government put into effect the FIRST Bill of Rights for the citizens of the United Kingdom. Perhaps it is about time for the American People to DEMAND that the U.S. Bill of Rights passed in 1789 be enforced to COMPEL the national, regional and local newspapers of the United States to return to the journalism of yesterday when IMPORTANT news on IMPORTANT national problems was reported in detail.

The United States was created as a Republic -- a representative government-- by the Constitution. Representative government was designed to be perpetuated in this country by voting, with the American People, the Sovereign Power, delegating this power through the periodic election of representatives. To insure that good representatives were elected, the electorate had to be well-informed by the Press about those who wished to represent the People. To insure that the elected representatives acted in accordance with the needs of the American people, National Problems and the actions of these representatives in confronting these National Problems had to be reported on fully and accurately through the Press.

The FOUNDATION of OUR Representative Government is the FULL and ACCURATE reporting of National Problems and National Legislative Activity.

This is why the Freedom of the Press statement was incorporated into the Freedom of Speech clause in the First Amendment. This is why the Supreme Court has held that Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press are "COGNATE FUNDAMENTAL PERSONAL rights." Each citizen has a PERSONAL right to free speech and a PERSONAL right to receive free speech in the public forum of ideas created by the Press, and these rights are inextricably combined.

It is difficult not to be FRIGHTENED of a Mainstream Media that violates the First Amendment rights of the American People every time it DELIBERATELY CENSORS the news on Congressional activity having to do with the most important problems facing the American People. These acts of CENSORSHIP strike directly at the heart of representative government in the United States.

It is difficult not to be FRIGHTENED of a Mainstream Media which has abrogated its Constitutional role of explaining national problems to the American people so they can understand what is going on. It should not be necessary for me or any other citizen to struggle through the torrents of words in the Congressional Record in an effort to determine the final content of HR.2491/S.1357, the Seven Year Balanced Budget Act of 1995.

At one time, the day-to-day coverage of these legislative battles in the national, regional, and local newspapers might have explained what was happening to the American People in understandable terms. But this is exactly what the powerful and the privileged in this country do not want -- a well-informed electorate. For the last twenty years the Mainstream Media has very successfully and very deliberately created a "DUMBED DOWN" electorate and a SMALL electorate.

When powerful private interests control the Mainstream Media, not only are our Constitutional rights in danger -- our lives, our health and our well-being in old age are also at risk.

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If we convert the Medicare and Medicaid spending for the years 1995 to 1999 from current dollars to constant 1996 dollars, we discover that the Medicare costs of 1997 ($183.8 billion) and 1998 ($184.9 billion) actually went down in 1999 ($178.9 billion).

THE Medicare and Medicaid MONEY TREE (In constant 1996 dollars)

1995: Medicare - $159.7 billion + Medicaid - $90.8 billion = Total $250.5 billion dollars

1996: Medicare - $171.3 billion + Medicaid - $92.0 billion = Total $263.3 billion dollars

1997: Medicare - $183.8 billion + Medicaid - $93.8 billion = Total $277.6 billion dollars

1998: Medicare - $184.9 billion + Medicaid - $94.4 billion = Total $283.3 billion dollars

1999: Medicare - $178.9 billion + Medicaid - $103.0 billion = Total $281.9 billion dollars

In spite of the successful Republican actions in the Congress to kill STRONG ANTI-FRAUD legislation, the determined anti-Fraud crackdown by the Health and Human Services Inspector General and the Clinton administration began to show some effect by 1999, actually reducing the 1999 Medicare costs. If the Republicans had not killed Democratic ANTI-FRAUD legislation in 1997 (HR.1770), Democratic Medicare and Medicaid OVERCHARGES and ANTI-FRAUD Legislation in 1998 (including the Clinton budget), and Democratic OVERCHARGES legislation in 1999, the total costs of Medicare would have been reduced more and the Medicaid costs might have gone done.