[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 11 (Monday, February 7, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S998-S999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          AN INCOMPLETE BUDGET

  Mrs. BOXER. The President has sent down his budget. We are going 
through it now to see what it means for our State. But this is quite a 
budget. This is a budget that does not include the costs of the war in 
Iraq. This is a budget that does not include the costs of the war in 
Afghanistan. This is a budget that does not show the true costs of 
making the tax cuts permanent. This is a budget that does not show the 
costs of what I call anti-Social Security, going into personal 
accounts, which is an enormous multitrillion dollar cost.
  So you have a document which is, on its face, incomplete. That is the 
best way I can put it: incomplete. Other people might use another word 
for it, but I will be charitable and say it is incomplete. Why can't 
the President show the true costs? Because he could not hold up his 
head if he put the true costs in there. We would be looking at deficits 
that are ruinous. The truth is, the deficits are ruinous.
  When President Bush took over, he had a surplus as far as the eye 
could see. He turned it into a deficit in 15 minutes. He said the tax 
cuts would be so great that we would have economic growth and we would 
suddenly have a balanced budget. It did not happen.
  Let me tell you what else is not in this budget. Where is the money 
from the Iraqi oil that was supposed to be coming our way? On March 27, 
2003, not that long ago, this is what Paul Wolfowitz, the Assistant 
Secretary of Defense said, in congressional testimony, sworn to tell 
the truth:

       The oil revenues of Iraq could bring between $50 and $100 
     billion over the course of the next two or three years. . . . 
     We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own 
     reconstruction, and relatively soon.

  Let me repeat that. A Bush administration spokesperson, very high up 
in the Defense Department, said:

       The oil revenues of Iraq could bring between $50 and $100 
     billion over the course of the next two or three years. . . . 
     We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own 
     reconstruction, and relatively soon.

  Well, here it is, folks, it is 3 years later, and not a penny of 
revenue is coming into our budget to help us, and the whole cost of the 
Iraq war is outside the budget--a disaster.
  Here is another claim, by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer:

       Iraq, unlike Afghanistan, is a rather wealthy country. Iraq 
     has tremendous resources that belong to the Iraqi people. And 
     so there are a variety of means that Iraq has to be able to 
     shoulder much of the burden for their own reconstruction.

  Where is the revenue in our budget? Not a dime, not one slim dime. 
They are not even talking about making these costs into loans against 
future oil revenues. And in the meantime, what are the American people 
told by this President and his budget? What are the veterans told? Oh, 
we are cutting back on veterans health care. Can you imagine? We are 
almost at 11,000 wounded, and this President's budget says, You are 
going to have to pay more for your pharmaceuticals, $250 to join, and 
you have to pay more. Let me tell you, a lot of us are going to stop 
that. Let me tell you, a lot of us are not going to let that happen.
  The people coming home from Iraq, half of them are very seriously 
wounded--thousands and thousands. Some estimates are that a third of 
them need mental health care. And this budget cuts veterans health. 
Wrong. That is not going to happen. It is unacceptable. I think it is 
unacceptable to the American people.
  I ask my constituents if they believe we ought to be doing more for 
veterans or less for the veterans or the same as we did last year. I 
know--and I have not taken a scientific poll--they would say: Senator, 
you give them what they need.

  The President says to the Iraqi people: As long as it takes. Whatever 
it is. Whatever it costs. I want to say to the veterans: Whatever it 
takes, however long it takes for you to get on your feet, we will be 
there.
  We have the President eliminating a program where the Federal 
Government gives States funding to incarcerate illegal immigrants who 
have committed crimes--cut, gone, finito, finished--eliminating $300 
million. We call it SCAAP. How can a President, at this time in our 
history, where we are guarding our borders, where we are concerned 
about who is coming in, lay all of that on the border States? This is 
wrong. It is unacceptable.
  How about this: The Bush budget slices law enforcement grants to 
States from $2.8 billion to $1.5 billion, while the President claims he 
is increasing homeland defense.
  I have a message for the President, in a nice, respectful way: It is 
our local law enforcement people who are protecting our citizens in 
every capacity. They are the bottom line of homeland defense.

[[Page S999]]

  There is a special and important program to assist police departments 
to improve technology and their ability to communicate with other 
agencies through COPS technology grants. Do you know what happens if 
there is an emergency in one area? What we have found out is, our 
police departments, our fire departments, our first responders do not 
have the equipment they need. They do not have the communications 
equipment. They cannot talk to each other.
  The Senate, in a bipartisan way, passed authorizing legislation to 
say we need to help connect these departments with one another. Because 
suppose something happens on a railroad track, and one sheriff sees it, 
and there is a disaster, and he needs to get on the line immediately to 
all the other agencies in the area; they cannot do it right now. They 
need to move toward the ability to do this. It seems shocking that we 
have not done that already in America, but that is the truth. What does 
the President do? He cuts that program. He eliminates it.
  Now, the President also creates a new program. He wants to extend the 
No Child Left Behind to high school. Well, how about fully funding his 
first No Child Left Behind? I wrote the part with Senator Ensign that 
deals with afterschool programs. It has been frozen for 3 years. There 
are millions of kids who want to get into afterschool programs.
  We know it works. Law enforcement loves the program. The teachers 
love the program because the kids get to do their homework. They stay 
out of trouble. The FBI loves the program. The FBI has told us the vast 
majority of juvenile crime occurs right after school until the parents 
come home. We did not need the FBI to tell us that. We kind of figured 
that out. But this is key.
  So here we are with a new program to extend No Child Left Behind to 
high school kids when we have not fully funded the afterschool program 
and many of the other programs that were promised to our people in the 
first No Child Left Behind. That is $1.4 billion, folks. This is not 
small change. This is $1.4 billion for this new program. There are no 
revenues in there from Iraqi oil.
  This is also the first administration not to back a polluter-pay fee. 
When polluters cause these superfunds, where we have toxics all over 
the ground seeping into the water, it costs a lot of money to clean it 
up. This is the first administration, Republican or Democratic, not to 
support this polluter-pay fee. That would bring billions in over 5 
years.

  There are ways for us to pay for things the American people need. I 
am looking forward to getting into more of the fine print of this 
particular budget. I used to be on the Budget Committee. I can tell 
you, I loved being on the Budget Committee because it was a way to look 
at the big picture. When I went on the Commerce Committee, I had to 
give up the Budget Committee. It was a sad decision for me. But I look 
forward to hearing from Kent Conrad and I look forward to hearing from 
the Republican chairman, who was Pete Domenici, and I am not sure if it 
has changed or not. Because I want to hear their take on this budget.
  But we see new initiatives in this budget that obviously are not paid 
for when we are shorting probably 150 programs, according to the 
President. We see nothing in here about getting any revenues from the 
Iraqi oil that were promised to us: $50 to $100 billion over the course 
of the next 2 or 3 years we were told by this administration in 2003. I 
believe in holding people accountable when they say things. I think it 
is important. That is what they said, and we do not see any evidence of 
any of this in this budget.
  So we have the budget to deal with. We have the class action lawsuit 
legislation, which I hope we can do in a way to protect the important 
lawsuits that need to be heard and need to be resolved. Because if they 
are heard and they are resolved, our people will be safer, our people 
will be stronger, our people will feel they have been given justice.
  We have the Social Security, what I call, repeal. Not a penny has 
been put into this budget to reflect any of that.
  I understand my time is up. There is no one on the floor so I suggest 
the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sununu). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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