[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 26, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E586-E587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SHOCK AND AWE

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 26, 2003

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in ``shock and awe.'' I am in 
shock and awe of the courage and bravery that our military women and 
men have shown overseas in the fight to liberate Iraq. They fight our 
fight, and they do it without question because their Commander-in-Chief 
asked them to.
  I rise today also in ``shock and awe'' of the actions this past 
Thursday on the House floor. Late in the night, the budget resolution 
passed by the skin of its teeth, but those teeth still cut deep. They 
cut deep to the tune of $14.6 billion in unspecified cuts to mandatory 
veterans' benefits programs with $463 million of that coming in the 
next year. Ninety percent of those cuts come from cash payments to 
service-disabled veterans, low income wartime veterans and their 
survivors. Montgomery G.I. Bill education benefits, vocational 
rehabilitation and independent living programs for service-disabled 
veterans, and subsidies for VA home loans also face cuts at the very 
time when troops fight through sandstorms and fierce enemy resistance. 
While at war, their benefits are stripped down to avoid ``waste, fraud 
and abuse.'' Do government programs helping low-income veterans or 
service-disabled veterans fall under ``waste, fraud and abuse?'' 
According to the Republican Leadership in the House, they do.
  Along with mandatory spending, VA discretionary spending takes a 
tremendous cut as well: $14.2 billion over the next ten years, and 96 
percent of discretionary spending is veterans' health care. Priority 8 
veterans have already been declared ineligible, and co-payments will 
increase for pharmaceutical drugs and primary care. In reducing 
discretionary spending, the Republican budget prevents more veterans 
from receiving health care and makes room for its tax cuts benefiting 
the wealthiest Americans, Americans who probably don't have children in 
fatigues. During wartime, this is shameful and disrespectful to the 
military women and men who make secure the very freedom that we enjoy.
  The ``shock and awe'' campaign apparently is not limited to military 
conflict in Iraq. It has engaged the budgetary process and threatens 
the ability of the U.S. government to care for its own. If we all 
support our troops and wish the swift return home of American daughters 
and sons, how can we find it in ourselves to cut funding to programs 
that extend a hand to the soldiers that said, ``No, you stay here. I'll 
go?'' There is no justice in it, and no pair of night-vision goggles 
will see justice in the budget passed last Thursday night.

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