Minimum Sentences on Fraudsters

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.