[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 56 (Wednesday, April 28, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2453-H2454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         MISTAKES ACCOMPLISHED

  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, 2 weeks ago the President held only 
his third public news conference in the evening when Americans could 
watch it. He was asked a question by one reporter: After 9/11, what 
would your biggest mistake be, what would you say, and what lessons 
have you learned from it?
  Mr. Bush was surprised. He stopped, he paused, he hesitated. He said, 
I am sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this 
press conference with all of the pressure of trying to come up with an 
answer, but it has not yet.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I am joined tonight by the gentleman from Illinois 
(Mr. Emanuel), who also spoke of this, and the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky). We are not here particularly to criticize 
the President about this. We want to help the President learn from his 
mistakes; and we want to outline, each of us, a couple of mistakes 
tonight that I think the President could learn from, if he thought 
about them and if he tried to act on them.
  Saturday marks the 1-year anniversary of the President's flying on to 
the aircraft carrier with the sign that his staff put up that said 
``Mission Accomplished.'' Karl Rove, the President's political guru, 
strategist, said recently he regrets using the ``Mission Accomplished'' 
sign; but nonetheless, it sort of galvanized the public to think about 
all of what this Iraq war has been about and what the Iraq occupation 
is about.
  But I want to concentrate tonight, as we look at some of the mistakes 
that have been made by the White House, mistakes that, unfortunately, 
he has not thought about and talked about publicly to learn from, 
whether it is what he has done with Medicare, or veterans, 
shortchanging veterans, or the tax cuts only for the wealthy, the loss 
of jobs, the weakening manufacturing base, trade agreements and all of 
that.
  But I want to talk tonight about how the soldiers have been equipped 
in Iraq. Only recently, I got a letter from a mother in Avon, Ohio, my 
district, informing me that her son serving in Iraq receives only one 
meal a day.
  Now, much of the last year I have met with families of young men and 
women serving in Iraq, and those families have talked about not enough 
safe drinking water. That is why so many of our servicemen and -women 
have come down with dysentery. Many have talked about having to send 
food to their sons or husbands or sisters who are serving in Iraq, 
because the military has not equipped them and Halliburton and those 
private contractors have not fed them well enough.
  Most seriously, and the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) is 
going to talk about this, as she has other nights, and the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) also, how we simply have not equipped our 
soldiers with the right kind of body armor.
  I met a young man on a plane one day who did reconnaissance for the 
military, just left, just had gotten home from Iraq. He was given one 
plate of body armor, everybody in his patrol

[[Page H2454]]

was given one plate of body armor; and he said, we decided to put them 
on our fronts rather than our backs, because we were not going to be 
running from anybody. But he had to make that choice.
  Our government, our military, the Bush administration, would spend 
$1.5 billion in Iraq every week, but did not have the foresight and the 
interest to outfit our soldiers and our servicemen overseas with the 
right kind of equipment to keep them safe.
  As the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) said, we have not put 
the armor on the Humvees nearly to the degree necessary on the doors 
and on the underbelly. We have not provided the kind of body armor.
  Month after month after month after month, Members of Congress have 
stood on this floor, parents wrote the Pentagon, people called the 
White House demanding, asking, pleading that body armor be provided for 
our soldiers. Some people died, some young men and women in Iraq were 
killed because the government, the Pentagon, the White House, simply 
did not provide the most basic body armor for our soldiers.
  Then you go to the President's budget; you go to what is really the 
measure of ourselves as a Nation, to provide for those men and women 
after serving their country when they come home. I just would like to 
read you four quotes that I think will help us see how we can fix the 
President's mistake, the mistake of not caring for the Nation's 
veterans.
  The Paralyzed Veterans of America said, ``The lack of consistent 
funding for the VA and the uncertainty attached to the process fuels 
efforts to deny more veterans health care and charge more veterans for 
the care they receive.'' That is the Paralyzed Veterans who gave so 
much to their country. We are not taking care of them.
  The President of Veterans of Foreign Wars said, ``The President 
ignored veterans in the State of the Union address and in the 2005 
budget. It is further evident that veterans are no longer a priority 
with the Bush administration.'' The Veterans of Foreign Wars.
  The Vietnam Veterans of America, ``The budget proposed by President 
Bush for veterans health care is not only inadequate, it is an insult 
to veterans.'' That is the Vietnam Veterans of America.
  The Disabled American Veterans said, ``It is clear that vets are not 
a national priority to the Bush administration. The President's budget 
plan attempts to shift the burden for funding veterans health care,'' 
shift the burden for funding veterans health care, ``to those brave men 
and women who have served and sacrificed for our country.''
  Mr. Speaker, we can fix one of these mistakes. The President could 
fix them by adequately funding veterans benefits and taking care of our 
troops.

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