110 HRES 1019 IH: Expressing the sense of the House of U.S. House of Representatives 2008-03-04 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1019 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 4, 2008 Ms. Lee (for herself, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mr. Hinchey, Ms. Woolsey, and Mr. Grijalva) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the current economic slowdown in the United States is directly related to the enormous costs of the ongoing occupation of Iraq, consigning the United States to what can only be called the Iraq recession, and for other purposes.

Whereas the current economic slowdown in the United States is directly related to the enormous costs of the ongoing occupation of Iraq, consigning the United States to what can only be called the Iraq recession; Whereas March 19, 2008, marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, which has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 members of the United States Armed Forces and resulted in injuries to more than 28,000 others, many suffering the most horrific of wounds which will scar them for life; Whereas to date, American taxpayers have spent more than $495 billion to invade and occupy a country that had not attacked us and posed no threat of harm to our vital interests; Whereas the average monthly operating costs for United States operations in Iraq have grown from $4.8 billion in fiscal year 2004 to $10.3 billion in fiscal year 2007, a doubling in only four years; Whereas a recent estimate from Nobel Laureate and former chief economist at the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, indicates that the cost to the United States by the end of the Iraq war could total more than $3 trillion; Whereas the President’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2009 calls for $23 billion in cuts to domestic programs, eliminating 50 education programs, 20 programs to improve healthcare access, and cutting discretionary grants to States and local governments by $15.1 billion; Whereas President George W. Bush has requested more than $170 billion in additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; Whereas in addition to the enormous cost in blood and treasure, the indirect costs of the Iraq war have harmed America’s international standing and engendered a generation of future enemies incensed by the endless occupation of their country by a foreign power; Whereas the collateral consequences of the decision to wage war and occupy Iraq extend to the home front due to the inability of the United States to finance investments needed to rebuild its infrastructure, make housing more affordable, improve educational opportunities, and secure the homeland; Whereas five years after the start of the Iraq war the great majority of Americans now regard the decision to go to war in Iraq as a mistake and 68 percent of Americans believe that ending the war and occupation in Iraq is an important step the United States Government can take to respond to the current economic recession and to address pressing human and social needs in the United States and to maintain American competitiveness in the global economy; Whereas there were 36.5 million Americans living in poverty in 2006; Whereas at least two million more Americans have fallen into poverty in the five years since the invasion of Iraq; Whereas there were more than 47 million Americans without health insurance in 2006; Whereas it is projected that more than two million American families will lose their homes to foreclosure, primarily in fiscal years 2008 and 2009; Whereas the $495 billion spent to cover the costs of the war in Iraq could have provided health care to 140 million persons or funded eight million elementary school teachers or provided scholarships to 80 million college students; Whereas the enormous sums spent fighting a war more costly than World War II could have been used instead to build 50,000 new elementary schools or 3.5 million affordable housing units or hire 10 million new first responders or 7 million persons to inspect the cargo entering United States ports or to retrofit more than 500 million homes to use renewable electricity; Whereas the money spent on the war and occupation in Iraq constitutes a continuing danger to the United States because it is money that is desperately needed but not available to assist State and local governments in coping with the decline in revenues resulting from falling property values and the economic downturn; and Whereas State and local revenues are falling at the same time that the demand is increasing for programs serving children, the elderly, the poor, the homeless, and those facing the loss of their homes and rather than increasing funding for these programs to respond to demonstrated need, State and local governments will be forced to cut back or eliminate programs that assist society’s most vulnerable persons at the most vulnerable time in their lives, which would constitute perhaps the greatest unintended consequence of the Iraq war: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that— (1)the current economic slowdown in the United States is directly related to the enormous costs of the ongoing occupation of Iraq, which have inflicted incalculable damage to the economic well-being of the United States and its standing abroad, consigning the United States to what can only be called the Iraq recession; and (2)Congress should— (A)move to redeploy United States Armed Forces and contractor security forces from Iraq as quickly and as safely as practical; and (B)refocus its efforts on addressing vital domestic priorities so as to alleviate the impact of the slowing economy and protect the economic security of all Americans.