[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 12, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2883-H2884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               RESPONSE TO THE WASHINGTON WASTE WATCHERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, well, that was interesting. Now if only the 
Republicans controlled the White House, the House of Representatives 
and the Senate, they would take care of this waste, fraud and abuse at 
the agencies.
  Many of the things the gentleman talked about are due to 
administrative mismanagement. If only George Bush was a Republican and 
they controlled the White House. Whoops. He is and they do. If only 
they controlled the House of Representatives. Well, they do; and the 
Senate. They control the entire Federal Government, and he comes up 
here and talks about the waste, fraud and abuse that he would eliminate 
if only they were in charge. Well, they are in charge. Why do they not 
eliminate it?
  They never bring bills to the floor to deal with waste, fraud and 
abuse. He talked about a few things that could provide a little bit of 
help for the troops. Let me talk about things that could provide a lot 
for the troops.
  Comanche helicopters, a scandal that has been going on starting with 
the Democratic administration and Republican Congress but continued 
under the Republican administration; $9 billion wasted. Finally 
canceled. No products. How many Humvees and sets of armor could we buy 
for that? Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of sets of armor and 
armored Humvees which, guess what, Donald Rumsfeld did not order. That 
is why we do not have them, not because there is not enough money in 
the Pentagon budget.
  They did not order what we needed to protect our troops because they 
did not predict what would happen because Rumsfeld would not read the 
reports from the State Department intelligence folks and from the CIA. 
He had Ahmed Chalabi, his favorite convicted felon from Jordan, who was 
feeding him information that he was paid to give, that he admitted was 
false.
  Then there is the $2 billion Crusader cannon, canceled. No product. 
How many sets of armored Humvees could be we buy for $2 billion?
  Then, of course, the $100 billion Star Wars fantasy. The Republican 
majority and the President want to spend $10 billion this year to 
deploy a missile defense system that does not work, according to the 
Pentagon itself; is untested, cannot even intercept a missile on a 
trajectory without decoys; $10 billion. Twice what we will spend 
defending all the borders and all the ports of the United States of 
America against the real threats, the new threats, the terrorist 
threats that these people are ignoring because they are worried that 
some suicidal maniac is going to shoot one missile at the United 
States, like Kim Jong Il who does not have any

[[Page H2884]]

missiles that can reach the United States, and have this country 
instantly incinerated.

                              {time}  1930

  That is not the threat. The threat is a tanker, a freighter, a truck 
coming across the border, or something being smuggled in some other 
way. But we are doing nothing to protect against that. We are going to 
spend the money. Why? Because the defense contractors are making a 
bundle, and then they turn around and give a cut to the Republicans to 
help keep them in the majority, just like the pharmaceutical industry I 
talked about earlier today.
  So it is just kind of pathetic, people standing up here saying, I'm a 
waste-watcher, and if my party was in charge,'' oops, they are. ``If my 
party had the Senate,'' oops, they do. ``If my party had the White 
House,'' oops, they do. And you are doing nothing about it. Well, do 
something about it. The minority cannot stop you.
  Please, do not give us that. The American people are not quite stupid 
enough to believe that the minority in the House, who is trampled over 
day in and day out, is stopping the Republicans from taking those 
steps. You are not even trying, because a lot of your buddies are 
making money on that stuff.


                    New Record Set by President Bush

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I came to talk about something else. I do 
not have much time left now, but I wanted to talk about a new record 
that has been set by the Bush administration.
  Congratulations to George Bush and his economic team; they have set 
yet another record. They told us last year, if only the dollar dropped 
in value, well, that was all that was hurting our manufacturing. It did 
not have to do with their totally failed trade policies and the 
outsourcing of American jobs. It was just that the dollar was a little 
too high.
  Well, the dollar dropped catastrophically. It was at a record low 
just a month ago, and guess what happened during that month? The U.S. 
ran a record trade deficit. So their theory does not seem to quite 
work. But we are still outsourcing jobs at a record rate. The dollar 
has come back a little. That might even make the deficit worse yet 
again. Their theories have not panned out.
  We have a failed trade policy in the United States of America. We are 
losing our manufacturing base, our technology base. China is stealing 
our technology, stealing it from small companies in my district; and 
the Bush administration will not file a single complaint. Not one. They 
say, let us get China into the WTO, then they will have to follow the 
rules. Okay, well let us enforce the rules. Oh, no, we cannot enforce 
the rules.
  We are not going to file complaints against China. It might upset our 
friends, the Chinese. Our friends the Chinese are dealing in weapons, 
they are dealing with terrorists on sophisticated manned pads that can 
shoot down airliners, they are dealing in nuclear technology to 
terrorist nations. Our friends, the Chinese. The Bush administration 
says, if we only embrace them a little tighter, they will come around. 
Yeah, right, after they get all our money, all our jobs, and all our 
technology, they will come around?
  I am just getting tired of these excuses: that if only they were in 
charge, they would do better. We have a failed trade policy, and what 
has this President proposed? More of the same.
  Now, I have to admit Bill Clinton had a failed trade policy, too; but 
he copied his from George Bush who copied it from Ronald Reagan, and I 
opposed all of them as I oppose this.
  Let us bring jobs back home to America. We need a new trade policy, 
and we need a little honesty around here instead of a bunch of 
whatever.

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