[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 104 (Tuesday, September 7, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H6736-H6737]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    TWO UNFORTUNATE NATIONAL RECORDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I want this evening to talk about two 
national records. Unfortunately, they are records we wish had not 
happened. Mr. Speaker, at this point I will place in the Record a story 
from the New York Times today.

                [From the New York Times, Sept. 7, 2004]

    Bush Unlikely To Fulfill Vow on Deficit, Budget Office Projects

                         (By Edmund L. Andrews)

       Washington, Sept. 7--Almost regardless of what happens in 
     Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush is very unlikely to 
     fulfill his promise of reducing the federal budget deficit by 
     half within five years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget 
     Office said today.
       In the last independent assessment of Mr. Bush's fiscal 
     legacy before the elections, the Congressional agency said 
     that if there were no change to existing law, the federal 
     deficit would decline only modestly from a record of $422 
     billion in 2004 to about $312 billion in 2009.
       If Mr. Bush persuades Congress to make his tax cuts 
     permanent, he will fall even farther short of his promise. 
     The federal deficit could reach nearly $500 billion in 2009 
     and the federal debt could swell by $4.8 trillion over the 
     next decade.
       The new estimate is the first time that the Congressional 
     agency has projected that President Bush will not be able to 
     fulfill his promise, made last February, to cut the deficit 
     by half.
       Budget projections, by Congress as well as the 
     administration, have been notoriously wrong in the past--
     failing to anticipate a flood of tax revenue during the last 
     1990's and then badly underestimating a plunge in revenue 
     after the stock market collapsed in 2000.
       But the new report is sobering because it arrives at 
     similar conclusions even when analysts made extremely 
     optimistic assumptions about war costs in Iraq and robust 
     economic growth.
       ``The message is that you cannot grow your way out of 
     this,'' said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who is director of the 
     Congressional Budget Office and a former chief economist on 
     President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.
       If anything, Congressional analysts are more optimistic 
     about economic growth, which usually leads to higher tax 
     revenue, than Wall Street analysts or the White House. The 
     Congressional report also estimated the budget outlook with 
     three different assumptions about the course of the war in 
     Iraq and Afghanistan, including the unlikely possibility that 
     no more money would be needed after next year.
       Stripping out all war costs for the two countries after 
     next year, the Congressional analysts said the federal 
     government would save $536 billion over the next five years. 
     But making Mr. Bush's tax cuts permanent, one of the 
     president's top priorities, would cost $549 billion through 
     2009 and $2.2 trillion through 2014.
       Averting a massive increase in the alternative minimum tax, 
     a parallel tax that was originally designed to keep people 
     from taking too much advantage of loopholes, would cost 
     another $150 billion over the next five years and more than 
     $400 billion over ten years.
       Democrats said the new report showed Mr. Bush's tax cuts 
     and spending policies had been reckless in transforming a 
     record budget surplus to a record budget deficit, just a few 
     years before the nation's retiring baby boomers start to 
     drive up Social Security and Medicare entitlement costs by 
     tens of billions of dollars a year.
       ``When the Bush administration took office in 2001, C.B.O. 
     projected a $397 billion surplus for 2004,'' said 
     Representative John W. Spratt of South Carolina, the senior 
     Democrat on the House Budget Committee. ``Under the fiscal 
     policies of this administration, the bottom line of the 
     budget has worsened by $819 billion in 2004 alone.''
       Republicans quickly countered by saying that the federal 
     deficit this year will be smaller, and tax revenue will be 
     higher, than either the administration or the Congressional 
     Budget Office predicted in January and February.
       ``This report underscores that our policies are working to 
     create a stronger economy, more jobs and a lower deficit,'' 
     said Representative Jim Nussle, Republican of Iowa, the 
     chairman of the House Budget Committee.

  Mr. Speaker, the headline reads: ``Bush Unlikely to Fulfill Vow on 
Deficit, Budget Office Projects.'' The non-partisan Congressional 
Budget Office has said regardless of what happens in the wars in Iraq 
and Afghanistan, President Bush is very unlikely to fulfill his promise 
of reducing our Federal deficit by half within 5 years, which is what 
had been promised.
  In fact, the fiscal legacy of this administration is simply 
horrendous. By the end of this decade it is anticipated that the 
Federal debt could swell by nearly an additional $5 trillion.
  President Bush will not keep his promise made last February right 
here to cut the deficit by half. In fact, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who is 
director of the Congressional Budget Office and former chief economist 
on the President's Council of Economic Advisors, has said the message 
is you cannot grow your way out of this.
  The policies of this administration, the fiscal policies, are truly 
reckless. And I think what is of deep concern to me and to our 
constituents in Ohio is that when you rack up a deficit of this 
proportion where you are borrowing against Social Security trust funds 
and borrowing from foreign countries to float this debt, you leave the 
trust fund in jeopardy and you end up giving your independence over to 
those who are financing you.
  And who are those holders of U.S. dollar reserves? Who are the 
holders of 42 percent of the bonds and securities that we have to pay 
off? China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, many other Middle Eastern countries.
  Our tax revenues then have to go to pay interest, 42 percent of this 
debt now being owned by foreign interests.
  This is a story which is an unfortunate development that we need to 
reverse this year and next year and the following year by electing 
people to the Presidency and to this Congress who are responsible with 
the taxpayers' dollars.
  The second record I wish to place in the Record this evening is the 
death toll, just announced for U.S. troops in Iraq which passed 1,000 
today, a milestone marking the continuing high cost of the war 18 
months after President Bush declared an end to major combat and more 
than 2 months since the nominal return of sovereignty to Iraq.

                              {time}  2045

  This is truly a tragedy. The total today of those killed reached 
1,001, including 756 combat deaths. According to casualties.org, a Web 
site that tallies U.S. military casualties in Iraq, mainly from U.S. 
military news releases, including combat and noncombat causes, 855 U.S. 
troops have died since May 1 of last year, and 140 have died since the 
return of sovereignty on June 28.
  A total of 6,916 were wounded as of the end of August, and this past 
August was the most cruel of all months of this war. Our soldiers were 
being attacked about 2,000 times in the month of August, an average of 
67 times daily, which is double the rate of attack in July when forces 
were attacked about 1,000 times or an average of 37 times daily.
  I will place this article from Knight Ridder news in the Record at 
this point.

                  [From Knight Ridder, Sept. 7, 2004]

                  U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Passes 1,000

                           (By Dogen Hannah)

       Baghdad, Iraq--(KRT).--The death toll for U.S. troops in 
     Iraq passed 1,000 on Tuesday, a milestone marking the 
     continuing high cost of the war 16 months after President 
     Bush declared an end to major combat and more than two months 
     since the nominal return of sovereignty to Iraq.
       The total, which reached 1,001, included 756 combat deaths, 
     according to icasualties.org, a Web site that tallies U.S. 
     military casualties in Iraq mainly from U.S. military news 
     releases. Including combat and noncombat causes, 855 U.S. 
     troops have died since May 1 last year, and 140 have died 
     since the return of sovereignty on June 28.
       The daily casualty toll has been slowly rising since major 
     combat operations ended--it now averages more than two deaths 
     each day. April was the deadliest month of the war, with 135 
     U.S. soldiers losing their lives during a broad uprising in 
     central and southern Iraq. Fifty-four U.S. troops died in 
     July, 66 in August, and 23 so far in September.
       A total of 6,916 were wounded as of the end of August, of 
     which 3,076 returned to duty within 72 hours.
       Pitched battles such as last month's three-week showdown 
     with a militia in Najaf, during which seven Marines and two 
     soldiers died, have grabbed headlines. But months of attacks 
     on or by U.S. forces elsewhere have added to the toll, even 
     as fledgling Iraqi forces shoulder more of the burden of 
     quelling the tenacious insurgency.
       On Tuesday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan 
     said of those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan: ``We 
     remember, honor and mourn the loss of all those who made the 
     ultimate sacrifice for freedom.''
       Army Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman in 
     Baghdad, said the rising death toll should be kept in 
     perspective. Each death is regrettable, he said, but the 
     overall toll is relatively small compared with how long U.S. 
     forces have been in Iraq and how many service members have 
     served in the country.

[[Page H6737]]

       ``I'm not sure it is a large number when you look at it in 
     the big scheme of things,'' Boylan said. ``The thing that 
     concerns me is people equating success or failure with the 
     number. The first casualty to the last casualty, whenever 
     that will be, is just as important and shouldn't be pegged to 
     numbers.''
       The latest deaths include four soldiers killed Tuesday in 
     Baghdad and a soldier who died Tuesday from injuries received 
     from a roadside bomb attack Monday on a convoy in Baghdad. On 
     Monday, the deadliest day for U.S. forces in four months, 
     seven Marines were killed in a massive car bombing on the 
     outskirts of Fallujah, a notorious hotspot of anti-U.S. 
     sentiment about 40 miles west of Baghdad. Three soldiers also 
     were killed in Baghdad and elsewhere. The approximately 
     140,000 U.S. service members in Iraq are deployed across a 
     vast region stretching from Iraq's northern border with 
     Turkey, Syria and Iran, through the country's middle and into 
     its southern provinces. The rest of southern Iraq is the 
     responsibility of coalition forces led by Britain and Poland.
       The coalition's mission is to support the fledgling interim 
     Iraqi government's efforts to prepare the country for 
     nationwide parliamentary elections by Jan. 31, including 
     establishing law and order. Boylan said U.S. military leaders 
     have acknowledged that the insurgency is making their job 
     difficult.
       ``It may not happen as fast as everybody would like,'' 
     Boylan said. ``It's hard work, especially when there are 
     groups of people who don't want you in their area, for 
     whatever reason.''
       Multinational soldiers were attacked about 2,000 times in 
     August, or an average of 67 times daily, a record since the 
     April 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, a military 
     spokesman said this week. In July, the coalition was attacked 
     about 1,000 times, or an average of 37 times daily.
       Mortar rounds rain on military bases. Improvised explosive 
     devices and car bombs blow apart military convoys. Gunmen 
     armed with assault rifles, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled 
     grenades prey on Marines and soldiers patrolling in armored 
     vehicles or on foot. ``It kind of runs the whole gamut,'' 
     Boylan said of the perils facing U.S. forces. ``There's still 
     an active threat. We have to guard against that every day.''
       Soldiers such as Army Staff Sgt. Mathew Barker, whose 1st 
     Cavalry company is stationed in an Iraqi National Guard 
     building in northern Baghdad barricaded behind razor wire and 
     earthen barriers, remain alert to the threats but try not to 
     let the danger impede their mission.
       ``If you spend every waking moment worrying about what's 
     going to happen, it isn't going to do you any good,'' Barker 
     said. ``Unfortunately, due to the nature of the operation--
     guerrilla-style tactics--you're going to have casualties. But 
     we have a mission to accomplish.'' The number of organized, 
     ``full-time'' insurgents is hard to quantify but is believed 
     to be between 4,000 and 6,000, Boylan said. Also, there are 
     an unknown number of individuals occasionally participating 
     in insurgent activities, sometimes for money, he said.
       Other reported estimates, including from U.S. military 
     sources speaking on condition of anonymity, have put the 
     insurgency's size as high as 20,000.
       Much of the danger to U.S. forces continues to be within, 
     and emanate from, the so-called Sunni Triangle. The region 
     north and west of Baghdad and bounded by the predominantly 
     Sunni Muslim cities of Tikrit, Ramadi and Baquouba is an 
     insurgent stronghold.
       So hostile are certain areas that the military has 
     designated some cities--including Fallujah, Ramadi and 
     Samarra in the Sunni Triangle and the southern cities of Kufa 
     and Latifiya--``no-go zones.'' Yet, Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz 
     said this week that U.S. forces might seek to gain control of 
     Fallujah before next year's parliamentary election.
       Such a move could add significantly to the number of U.S. 
     casualties.
       Barker, the 1st Cavalry soldier in Baghdad, looks on the 
     casualty count with a certain degree of stoicism. ``We're 
     Army. This is our job. This is what we signed up to do,'' he 
     said.
       Yet he and his fellow soldiers also are keenly aware of the 
     mounting death toll. Reading the Army's newspaper, Stars and 
     Stripes, they can't ignore the rising number and the names of 
     their fallen comrades-in-arms.
       ``Yes, it's a low figure compared to how many people have 
     been here,'' Barker said. ``But one death is more than 
     enough.''

  Later this month I will begin a Special Order on the anniversary of 
September 11 that addresses the root causes of terrorism and where the 
rising antagonism against the United States and the West emanates from. 
For until we address the root causes of the hate, we cannot possibly 
contain the rising insurgency that cuts across borders, Nations and 
cultures, and our soldiers are paying the largest price for this.
  Tonight we wish to thank those men and women serving our Nation 
through the military, whose mission is extraordinarily difficult and 
whose patriotism is at the highest levels, and they deserve our highest 
esteem and appreciation.

                          ____________________