[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.
____________________