[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 154 (Wednesday, October 29, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H10112-H10113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LETTERS FROM CONSTITUENTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 1838, former President, then-
Congressman, John Quincy Adams came to the House floor because he was
prohibited, as were the other Members of Congress, from debating the
most important issue of the day.
Conservative leadership in the House of Representatives between 1838
and 1842 had passed a rule prohibiting and banning the discussion of
slavery on the floor of the House of Representatives. Then-Congressman
John Quincy Adams came to the floor, day after day, week after week,
sharing letters from his constituents, many of them from women who
could not vote in those days, sharing letters from his constituents
asking, pleading with the House, that they debate the issue of slavery
and that they ban and wipe away that blot on American history.
In some ways similarly today, Members of this House have not had the
opportunity to debate the issues of Iraq, of keeping our troops safe in
Iraq, of providing and supplying our troops, of the corruption and the
incompetence in the Pentagon and in the Bush administration in
supplying the troops and turning over so many public dollars to private
contractors.
As a result, I would like to share some of those concerns. Since we
are not debating the issues on the House floor, I would like share some
of the concerns with letters from my constituents.
Sabba, from Richfield, Ohio, writes, ``The Bush administration had no
concrete evidence confirming the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Bush completely disregarded the United Nations' dissenting opinion.''
You can see in letter after letter I am receiving in Ohio, and my
colleagues, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), the gentleman
from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich), the
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms.
Jones) and Members from both parties in Ohio are receiving from all
over the country, people's concerns that the President and the
administration may not have leveled with the American people about all
of these issues.
{time} 2100
Margaret of Strongsville writes, ``Please don't throw money into a
vast pit which will affect us all for another several generations.''
Margaret is referring to the $1 billion a week that the President is
already spending in Iraq, a third of that money unaccounted for, going
to private contractors, many of them the President's friends, and that
is where she and so many others believe there is so much waste and so
much pork.
Marvin of Akron, Ohio, says, ``The request must be carefully
scrutinized and unnecessary expenditures removed.''
Thomas of Akron, Ohio, writes, ``How much debt is acceptable?''
What he is writing about is he understands, as most Members of this
House do, I think, on both sides of the aisle, that the $87 billion is
put on a government credit card. We are going to spend our children's
and our grandchildren's money, in large part, because Congress has
voted a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. The average millionaire
in this country, as Thomas knows from his letter, the average
millionaire in this country gets a $93,000 tax cut. Half of Ohioans get
no tax cut at all. Yet, we are not going to rescind that tax cut for
the richest of Americans, for the American millionaires
[[Page H10113]]
that get $93,000; we are going to put this war on a credit card so that
that $87 billion plus the $80 billion that Congress has already spent,
plus the tens of billions more that we know President Bush will ask
for, will be paid for by our children and our grandchildren.
Crystal of Akron writes, ``Please think long and hard before you
spend $87 billion. To what end?'' We hear that over and over and over.
When I read these letters, Mr. Speaker, one thing also that comes out
is people understand that of this $1 billion a week we are spending in
Iraq, one-third of it goes to private contractors. Most of those
private contracts are unbid contracts, and most of that money is going
to friends of the President. Halliburton, Bechtel, corporation after
corporation, if you look at FEC reports, you see those corporations,
the employees of those corporations are giving hundreds of thousands
and, in some cases, millions of dollars to the President's campaign.
And to make that even worse, Mr. Speaker, Halliburton, the company
where the former CEO is now the Vice President of the United States,
Dick Cheney, Halliburton has received over $2 billion in government
contracts, over $1 billion in unbid, unaccounted for contracts; and
Halliburton is still paying Vice President Cheney, still paying Vice
President Cheney $13,400 a month. Vice President Cheney is receiving
$13,000, more than $13,000 a month, $160,000 a year, from this company
that gets unbid contracts of taxpayer dollars to fix Iraq, to supply
the troops, to do whatever that Halliburton is supposedly doing.
Halliburton's profits have gone sky high while they have the go on
these contracts, while they have paid the Vice President of the United
States. It is just amazing to me. All of us in this body should be
incredulous that we are spending this kind of money, giving this money
to a company like Halliburton, with unbid contracts, literally hundreds
of millions of dollars a week, and then this company turns around and
pays Vice President Cheney $13,000 a month.
Mr. Speaker, I close with the last letter, Anthony from Akron, Ohio:
``Bush needs to face up to these facts. I am 16 years old. I myself
feel that growing up in America will now be tougher because of all of
these things that are going on.''
Mr. Speaker, end the corruption, end the incompetence of the Bush
administration in Iraq, do it right. Fix Iraq the right way. Stop the
corruption. Stop the incompetence.
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