[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 50 (Thursday, March 22, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H2943-H2949]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hodes). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, as always, it is a privilege and an
honor to be recognized to speak on the floor of the United States House
of Representatives. I bit my tongue over the last hour and listened
attentively to some of the dialogue that was taking place. It is
important, I believe, to correct the record at least on the portion I
was paying attention.
The issue that was being discussed by the six or seven on the other
side of the aisle was about the eight U.S. Attorneys who were fired by
the President. There are great, huge, yawning gaps in the description
that came out. For the benefit of the people listening to that portion
of it, I will attempt to fill in the gaps.
One is the President dismissed eight U.S. Attorneys. That runs about
85 short that were fired summarily by President Clinton. Talk about a
chilling effect on your ability to prosecute if you happened to have
been looking into Whitewater or if you happened to have been the
prosecutor of Dan Rostenkowski and you found yourself immediately
fired, and then subsequent to that, your successor achieving a
conviction in the case of Rostenkowski, and then watching President
Clinton pardon the very subject of your investigation, I would think
that would be a chilling effect on a prosecutor.
But the allegation was made that ``the independence of our U.S.
Attorneys is the hallmark of justice.'' Well, yes, I think that is
true, but they serve at the pleasure of the President, and the
President has the authority and he has the responsibility, Mr. Speaker,
to ensure that those U.S. Attorneys are conducting their job, that they
are actually prosecuting cases, locking people up in prison and not
only taking them out of the crime job market, but also providing an
example that keeps other people from committing crimes. When those
prosecutions are not taking place at the pace they need to, if they are
failing to distinguish themselves, then it is the responsibility and
the duty of the President and subsequently the Attorney General to
direct that they be removed.
The allegation that the firing of U.S. Attorneys for political
purposes was a statement made by the gentleman from New Hampshire.
Political purposes. There is no evidence that has been submitted on
either side of the aisle that says they were fired for political
purposes. There has been speculation, but that is an allegation that I
think is a heavy allegation and it is an unjust allegation, and the
people who make those kinds of allegations have a responsibility to
come forward with some shred of evidence that they base their opinion
on rather than wishful thinking.
{time} 2100
This is no scandal, Mr. Speaker. It is not a scandal because it is
eight U.S. attorneys. Eight U.S. attorneys, and there is not a partisan
divide here that can be seen. It is not like there were eight Democrat
U.S. attorneys that were investigating Republicans in office. There is
no evidence of that. It is more like there were Republicans and
Democrats who have been admonished in the past and challenged by
Members of this Congress, at least in one particular case, for not
being aggressive enough, for not providing the kind of prosecutions
necessary to enforce our borders.
Now, that is something that is essential to our national security,
and if the allegations that are made here on the floor of this Congress
and the statements that are made in committee and the witch hunt that
is going on by submitting and requesting, subpoenaing the White House's
closest advisers whom the President relies upon to be able to give him
unfettered counsel, and they cannot be intimidated. Talk about
intimidation, a subpoena to come before Congress and be questioned on
the record about your most private advice to the Commander in Chief of
the United States of America is what is going on here.
This is an unjust, unbalanced overreach, and it is my advice to the
new majority to start acting like the majority because you are going to
have to take responsibility for governing. You have not shifted gears
from demagoguery of the past into the responsibility to provide policy
that is going to direct this country into the future. It is high time
that that happened. Break the mold. Let us go forward with good policy,
and remember, if you have the gavels, you have the responsibility to
make statements that are precisely correct, accurate all the way,
truthful in every way possible, and move this country forward in the
right direction and provide solutions, not just criticism.
I expect that subject will come up a little bit more, Mr. Speaker,
within the next 53 minutes or so. Hopefully that will dispatch that
subject for tonight.
But I would raise also there are two more issues before us tonight,
Mr. Speaker, and one of them is hanging in the balance here in an
unprecedented move, and that is the effort to provide a voting Delegate
for the District of Columbia here in the United States Congress. It is
an astonishing thing for me. It is an astonishing thing for me to be
one of 435 Members of this House of Representatives who comes down to
this floor every 2 years, and I bring my own Bible down here to make
sure I am not short a Bible because I want my oath to go before God and
country, for God and country, and take an oath to uphold the
Constitution of the United States, so help me God. I add those words to
my oath, and I have done so every time that I have been here to take
that oath.
I believe that if there is a bill before this Congress, and as we
analyze it constitutionally, if any of us come to the
[[Page H2944]]
conclusion that it is an unconstitutional piece of legislation, it is
our responsibility or our duty, our obligation, our oath to uphold such
unconstitutional legislation. We have taken an oath to do so. Vote
``no'' and clearly articulate the reasons why that bill is
unconstitutional.
So Mr. Speaker, I have clearly articulated that before the Rules
Committee, before the Rules debate here on the floor, and with the case
of the bill on the floor, and I will seek to do that again for the
edification of those that were not paying attention and still think
that they can come around here tomorrow or next week or whenever it is
that the majority gets the votes lined up and vote for an
unconstitutional bill because they think it fits their politics. That
is not what this oath is about, and so this D.C. district sets this
way.
The first unconstitutional provision is this. Article I, section 2 of
the Constitution says that the Representatives shall be Representatives
of the States chosen by the people of the States. So if D.C., the
District of Columbia, is not a State, it is a clear constitutional
provision that prohibits this Congress from bestowing a Member, a
voting Member representing the District of Columbia into this Congress
because the District of Columbia simply is not a State.
Now, there are a couple of ways to resolve this issue. One would be
to adopt the District of Columbia as a State, in which case they would
get a Representative for the House of Representatives and two Senators.
If that could be done and this Congress could pass it and we adopt
District of Columbia as a State, that would be a constitutional
solution.
Another constitutional solution would be to simply to take the
populated areas outside our Federal buildings, just a little bit
outside the Mall, from the Potomac River all the way up here around to
the east side of the Capitol, set that aside as the District, and the
balance of the District then could be ceded back to Maryland. That then
could be incorporated into the redistricting process, and the people
that lived in the District would be able to vote for a Representative
in Congress.
But the arguments made on the other side go something like this, Mr.
Speaker, and that is, well, we think that it is a violation of the 14th
amendment, a violation of the equal protection clause, for people to
live in the District of Columbia and not have a vote, be able to elect
a Member of Congress.
I would submit, if that is so compelling that one can ignore the
Constitution's clear language, then, Mr. Speaker, it is equally
compelling to demand two Senators for the same region, and some will
acknowledge that that is the goal, and some will deny it.
But this Constitution has always been kind of an inconvenient thing,
Mr. Speaker. What is inconvenient about it is it provides constraints,
constraints for both sides, Democrats and Republicans, constraints for
all of us who have a political reason or a policy need that does not
consider the long-term best interests of the people of the United
States.
This Constitution is the law of the land, Mr. Speaker, and I will
submit that our Founding Fathers considered this when they established
this constitutional Republic that we are in, and as they considered
this, they looked at the democracies, the relatively pure democracies
that they had in the Greek city-states 2,000 and 3,000 years ago, and
they concluded that in the case of the pure democracy, the result was
the same effect as if you had two wolves and a sheep taking a vote on
what is for dinner. The majority rules, and the sheep is dinner.
So are we going to get let those kind of whims wave back and forth
across the floor of this Congress, Mr. Speaker, or are we going to
adhere to a Constitution that we have sworn an oath to uphold? I will
submit that what I am seeing is the two wolves are taking a vote on
what is for dinner, and the sheep is the Constitution here, and the
minority in the United States House of Representatives, and I have
pledged to uphold this Constitution, I will stand in the way to the
last breath of an unconstitutional provision, no matter what it is.
But the arguments that were made here on the other side of the aisle
primarily, Mr. Speaker, came down to this: That there are two very
well-respected attorneys that have written opinions that will take the
position that it is not unconstitutional for this Congress to ignore
the Constitution and confer a voting right on a Member from the
District of Columbia. Yet, as I look at those two names, they are high
and stellar names, Mr. Ken Starr and Mr. Viet Dinh. I have worked to
some degree with both of them and read their opinions, and I recognize
that when one goes off to law school, one of the first things they
teach you, Mr. Speaker, is argue this side of the case, now argue this
side of the case, take the position on the right side, take the
position on the left side.
There are two reasons for being able to argue both sides of every
issue, Mr. Speaker, and one of them is so if you are hired to argue one
side, you are prepared to do so; you are not stuck in an individual
ideology. The other one is, if you want to survive in the attorney
business, you can provide for billable hours because you are a lot more
flexible to be able to go on either side of an issue.
Well, I do not allege that these legal opinions that have been
produced by Mr. Starr and Mr. Viet Dinh do not have a basis. They do. I
just submit that it is a weak basis, Mr. Speaker, and as I read through
that, there is the foundation of the Tidewater case. Their argument
there is that because a court found in favor of allowing the people in
the District to have the Federal court protection and conferred that
kind of utilization of the court on the residents here in the District
of Columbia, that that implies that they are citizens of a State. Well,
that is an utterly weak analysis, Mr. Speaker.
Then the second argument, and that seemed to be even an argument that
they hung their hat on even more, was the argument that, and believe
me, the Framers understood there was going to be a District of
Columbia. When this Constitution was ratified, they knew that. They
defined it within the Constitution itself in Article I, but what they
provided for was for the 10-mile-by-10-mile section that was laid out
to become the District of Columbia for a period of time, that was from
1791 until 1801, that roughly 10-year period of time, until the Federal
jurisdiction was applied here in this District, they allowed the people
that before that time had been residents of Virginia to vote as
residents of Virginia, and they allowed the people that had been
residents of Maryland to continue voting as residents of Maryland.
So nothing changed for the people that were residents of the District
for 10 years until the Federal jurisdiction was established, at which
time then they did not have a Representative here in this Congress, and
have not had all this time for this 200-plus years.
Well, the argument that was made by the two stellar legal scholars
was because Congress allowed the people that lived here in this
District to vote as residents of Maryland or Virginia, as the case may
be, for 10 years, somehow that established a precedent or a
constitutional right to have a Representative in the United States
Congress, an utterly weak argument, and a precedent it was not.
Mr. Dinh admitted what the analysis comes down to, because there was
an agreement between the House and the Senate, and the President signed
the bill and let them vote conditionally for a 10-year period of time,
that it was no precedent like you would get if the Supreme Court had
made a decision. The only decision was no one disagreed with, so there
was no constitutional argument to be resolved. In fact, no
constitutional precedent was established either.
We go forward, and now equal protection under the law, Utah, to give
a resident or a Member at-large so that if you are a resident of Utah,
you can go and vote for your Representative in your district and the
Representative that would be the Representative at-large in Utah. In
fact, if you are a Member or a candidate, you could vote for yourself
and somebody else to come here and do the same job. That is not equal
protection under the law.
There was a case in 1961 called Baker v. Carr that tied this down to
as close to an individual population balance as you could possibly get.
That was the beginning of one man, one vote. There was a subsequent
case in 1964 that speaks to it as well, but Utah also blows this
Constitution sideways.
[[Page H2945]]
There are many reasons to vote ``no'' on this, and the difficulty
that the majority has, and now unprecedentedly pulling a bill down as
it was to go up for final passage and refused to allow a vote after
days of building up to this with no explanation is unprecedented in
this Congress, and that violates, I believe, the right of the people to
be heard and the right of their judgment to be recorded here in a
recorded vote on whether the District of Columbia will have an
unconstitutional Member in this Congress or whether they will not, Mr.
Speaker.
So that kind of cleans up the air here and gets us to this point
where we are at the subject matter we came here to talk about, and what
I would like to do to kick that subject matter off would be to yield to
the gentlewoman from Tennessee, the tenacious Marsha Blackburn.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Iowa so much,
and I thank him for hosting our Republican Study Committee hour this
evening so that we can come here and talk a little bit about what those
of us in the Republican Study Committee are doing, and certainly how we
feel about the supplemental budget that is before us, a vote that we
will take tomorrow. I appreciate the context that Mr. King has brought
to our debate tonight.
It is so very interesting to listen to our colleagues across the
aisle. They talk about how they are going to change things, and when we
talk, Mr. Speaker, about the change the American people wanted to see
in November, they were not talking about subpoenas and hearings and
vilifying people. The Democrats said that was not what they were going
to do, and we know there are many who would like to make the President
responsible for every single thing that has gone wrong.
We understand that, and we accept that, but it is unfortunate that
when they come down here and they talk about honesty and accountability
and trustworthiness and oversight and responsibility, their actions do
not match their words. Their actions do not match their words at all.
What we continue to see in the supplemental budget, in the D.C.
voting bill that they pulled from the floor today, and the budget that
they will bring before us next week are a lot of accounting gimmicks,
trying to move spending off line, hiding dollars, budget manipulation
and deception. My goodness, this does not match up to what we hear from
their rhetoric at all.
We know that there was all this talk about trying to be certain that
we kept the spending low, and, Mr. Speaker, it took our colleagues
across the aisle, as they took the majority, it took them 2 days to
increase spending and 2 weeks to increase taxes on the American
taxpayer, on the middle-class families working so hard to make ends
meet, 2 days to increase spending.
{time} 2115
They have spent well over an additional $50 billion so far. Two weeks
to increase taxes, and as this budget that the Democrats are working on
comes to the floor next week, they are going to invoke the largest tax
increase in U.S. history, $400 billion over 5 years. That does bring us
to the point of talking about the supplemental, and that is before us.
Because as we hear all of this rhetoric, what we see is a budget, a
supplemental bill that is to be there for our troops.
We all know that there is a lot that our troops need. When it comes
to meeting their needs, when it comes to meeting their readiness, there
is a lot they need. One of the reasons for that, when you go in and you
look at the decade of the 1990s, budget after budget after budget, the
military was cut. Funding to the military was cut. Funding to veterans,
funding to veterans health care, funding to programs for the military
retirees, funding for the active duty, funding for equipment, funding
for artillery, funding for research and development, cut, cut, cut,
cut, cut, year after year after year. The Democrats chose to cut that.
Bill Clinton chose to cut that because they had other priorities.
They were do the dot-com boom. They were into issues that were other
domestic issues, but the Nation's security was not a priority.
Certainly, even the current Speaker of the House was quoted in last
year's campaign as saying national security shouldn't be a campaign
issue.
There is nothing more important than the security of our families in
this Nation. There is not one thing more important.
I have so many places I could go to talk about what has happened to
this budget, to this supplemental bill that is before us tomorrow. It
is to be the emergency spending bill for the war on terror, for our
issues in Iraq. USA Today even had an editorial calling this a bad
bill, because they don't see, and I agree with them, I agree with USA
Today on this, they don't see an additional $500 million for the Forest
Service as an emergency spending. They don't see $283 million for the
Milk Income Loss Contract Program an emergency, or $120 million to
compensate for the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the shrimp and fish
industry, or $100 million for citrus assistance, or $74 million for
peanut storage costs or $64.4 million for salmon fisheries or $54
million for asbestos mitigation, or $48 million in salaries and
expenses for the Farm Service Agency, or $35 million for NASA risk
mitigation or $25 million for spinach growers or $25 million for live
stock.
Even USA Today doesn't see that as emergency spending. I agree with
them, because it's not.
I bet that many Members of this House had a wonderful mother like my
mom has always been. My mother was always very good at saying, when I
was doing something that maybe wasn't appropriate, she would say not
here, not now, this is not the place.
Well, as good as some of these programs may be, not here, not now,
this is not the place. The men and women in the US military are worth
more. They are worth more than the actions, the actions and the conduct
that is being carried forward in this budget. It is the wrong place,
and this is the wrong time to spend $21 billion on discretionary
spending that the Democrat majority does not want to carry to the floor
and debate. They want to hide it. They want to keep it out of sight.
They don't want anybody to know this. They just want to get the
spending in there. Because, why? They want to circumvent their own
PAYGO rules and their own budget rules. It is not the time; it is not
the place.
Now, if the leadership of the Democrat Party is so into instant
gratification that they cannot wait to take it to committee and go
through the proper channels, then I think they need to have a
reevaluation about what is important. I can tell you what is important
to my constituents. It is knowing that when they put their head on the
pillow at night, they are safe. It is knowing when they drop their
children off at school, they are safe. It is knowing that when those
children graduate from high school and from college, they are going to
have a brighter future. It is knowing that as they work hard to build a
business, that they are going to have the opportunity to grow that
business. It is knowing that when they retire, that they are going to
be able to enjoy every single day of that retirement.
It is knowing that, yes, indeed, they are going to be accountable,
they are going to support their government, and it is knowing that
their government is going to be there to support the fundamental
values, the underpinning of this Nation, and to support the men and
women who put their lives on the line every single day to go and defend
this country and defend their freedom.
You know what, if it were not for those men and women in uniform, if
it were not for them doing their job, if it were not for the fact that
they have done their job time and again during the course of this
Nation's history, you and I would not be standing here tonight having
this debate.
There is a price that is paid for freedom. Every penny we appropriate
in an emergency bill deserves to be spent on the men and women wearing
the uniform defending that freedom.
Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentlelady from Tennessee. Certainly I
wish to associate myself with all of her remarks, and I appreciate the
consistency and the persistence with which Mrs. Blackburn comes here to
the floor and participates in committee in every way possible to move
the right agenda here in America.
I reflect upon a thought that crossed my mine a week or so ago or
maybe 2
[[Page H2946]]
weeks ago in committee, as I was listening to the kind of argument and
debate that was coming from the other side of the aisle, and the
discussion was about people who have food anxiety. We established food
stamps for people who were suffering from malnutrition, and then we
extended those benefits to those that were hungry, and now the effort
is to extend those benefits, not to just those that, we can't make the
argument that people don't know where their next meal is coming from
any longer, so now the argument is made that people wonder where their
second, third, fourth and fifth meal is coming from, and that is called
food anxiety. Food insecurity is the more appropriate term they likely
use, food insecurity.
It occurred to me, this Constitution, I waved it around a little
earlier, provides some constitutional rights: life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. But as I read back through my history and
recognize that FDR back in the 1930s made another speech, and it's
called the Four Freedoms speech. Those four freedoms, as he defined
them, are etched into stone down in FDR's monument. First is freedom of
speech, the second is freedom of religion. Those are constitutional
rights. Speech and religion are one and two, third and fourth are
freedom from want and freedom from fear.
Now, those aren't constitutional rights. They are extra-
constitutional rights, as articulated by FDR. But they were used to
advance an agenda that grew government more dramatically than ever
before, and it eclipsed the vision of most Americans. But they are
really not rights. They are not constitutional rights. It's a vision or
an image to have freedom from want and freedom from fear. Now, I don't
know how you ever get to that point where you are free from fear. I
don't think that can be guaranteed.
But we have gone another step now with the food anxiety or the food
insecurity part. Now we have gone from our real freedoms, freedom of
speech and religion, all of our Bill of Rights, to freedom from want
and freedom from fear as articulated by FDR. Now, because of food
insecurity language, now the argument is we need to make sure that
people are free from the fear of want, freedom from fear of want.
So you should never have to wonder about whether you could pay your
rent. You should never have to wonder about where your next meal is
coming from. You should never have to wonder if you are going to have a
job or if you are going to get fired, because government can be all
things to all people. Government can take this safety net and turn it
into a hammock, and no one has any anxiety. Perhaps we could cure
ulcers if we could just have enough Federal money to do that.
If we are free from fear of want, we will also be free of the
ambition to provide for our future wants and needs. If that's the case,
the productivity in America will go down dramatically, and we will
watch this work ethic in our culture collapse. One of the things that
drove me to work my entire life was fear of want and not knowing,
necessarily, even where my next meal was coming from, not knowing if I
was going to be in business the next week or next month, but knowing I
was the one in charge, I was the one in control. I had to not only work
hard; I had to work smart.
That has given millions of Americans to succeed, freedom from fear of
want, a new right in this new Pelosi administration. I offer that
thought for edification and consideration.
But I also recognize that the gentleman who represents the vast
majority of the State of Nebraska and some of those spaces out there
are, indeed, vast, Mr. Smith. I appreciate your arrival in this
Congress, the values that you bring here, and the principled stand that
you take. Often there are many things that tie western Iowa to all of
Nebraska, and particularly western Nebraska. I appreciate you being
here on the floor.
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Thank you to the gentleman from Iowa. It's
great to be here. I take this responsibility, not only this evening,
very seriously, but being elected as a Member of the United States
House of Representatives very seriously.
My primary responsibility, I believe, is to protect the freedoms that
so many Americans enjoy and, perhaps, have taken for granted for a
time. I think back to the terrorist acts leveled on our country, and
that is a constant reminder that we cannot sit idly by, that we cannot
let division sway us from our goal. I believe that one of the
fundamental sources of our freedom is through economic freedom, and
that is why I requested a spot on the Budget Committee.
Incidentally, last night, we had a long markup of the budget. It was
very enlightening to me as a new Member, and it was very enlightening
to me, I think, some of the rhetoric and the objectives of a budget. We
know that so often we want to tell people, yes, in terms of the of new
programs, of new spending. There comes a time, though, when we are
going to have to pay for that.
There was a lot of rhetoric exchanged in terms of what tax relief has
done for our economy, some would say what it hasn't done for the
budget. But I don't know if it's just coincidence that the economy
turned around with tax relief. I don't think it's coincidence, to be
quite honest with you. But it is interesting how the allegations are
leveled that the Bush administration tax relief or the Reagan tax
relief or, quite honestly, the President John F. Kennedy tax relief had
nothing to do with a rebounding economy subsequently.
It was very enlightening to me, in fact, when I was visiting the JFK
Library in Boston, or outside of Boston. This is not the Ronald Reagan
Library; this is not the Bush 41 or the Bush 43 library. This is the
John F. Kennedy Library that has an entire exhibit devoted to the
economic policies of tax relief leading to economic prosperity.
I believe that it has to do with the very basics of economic freedom
that individuals, families, you name it, when they have those dollars
in their hands, they can spend it more wisely on the economy, rather
than paying it into the government, and then the government doling it
out as a redistribution of wealth or whatever the case might be.
{time} 2130
But it does amaze me that we are here listening to the need for so
much more spending. In fact, a high level of spending wasn't enough to
get enough support, so they made it even higher to bring on more
support. That concerns me, and I know that it concerns many Americans
as well.
But as we were marking up the budget last night in committee well
into the night, it was interesting how we heard that the majority wants
to maintain the tax relief relating to the marriage penalty, tax relief
relating to the child tax credit, but yet the budget doesn't show that.
The budget does not show that. And it just spoke volumes, I guess, in
terms of sound budgeting according to the principles I think of
economic freedoms that should be instilled there.
But when we talk about something, we politicians kind of get a bad
name now and then, or maybe more often than that, for saying one thing
and doing another. That is unfortunate, because this budget says one
thing and does another, and that is my concern.
It is interesting that there were amendments proposed for the budget
resolution last night that would have solidified the tax relief one
measure at a time. So there was the option of cherry-picking, if you
will, good parts, bad parts, whatever the case might have been for
others wanting to support these amendments. If they like the child tax
credit, but didn't like the dividends reduction in taxes, they have the
option to choose one without the other. Every single amendment was
rejected. Every single amendment. That concerns me a great deal
because, like I said, it eats away at what I believe is a fundamental
freedom that we should enjoy in America, that being economic freedom.
Mr. KING of Iowa. If the gentleman would yield, and just inquire as
you were working through that budget last night, what kind of message
did you get from the majority party on how much support there was for
the Department of Defense budget and how much support for military
spending? We are having this debate here on the floor today and
starting again tomorrow morning. Did you sense that there was a
commitment to support our military financially, our troops, and their
mission?
[[Page H2947]]
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. I did not sense that commitment. It would be
hard for me to speak or to speculate. And I am not here to beat up on
those with whom I disagree. That is not my job.
I do believe, though, that this supplemental spending bill, and I
don't want to take up all of your time, but I do want to touch briefly
on the fact that this supplemental spending bill with the caveats that
many would call micromanaging the war is the wrong thing to do. I don't
think we want to give our enemy any hint of what our plans are. A date
certain withdrawal is the wrong thing to do. Certainly that was not
discussed, especially in the spending context that we have heard so
much here today about and well into the future.
There is a lot we can worry about in the past, but if we don't focus
on the future, we are not doing our jobs. And as we look at protecting
the freedom, I can't help but think how productive we could be with a
more unified approach. And I believe that military generals are trained
highly, and that we should entrust in their abilities the objective of
doing what they need to do so that we can see success overseas. And I
cannot say that enough, but I truly believe that turning a spending
bill into a bill to micromanage the war is the wrong thing to do.
Constitutionally the President is the Commander in Chief. No one else
is the Commander in Chief. And the Commander in Chief makes the tough
decisions. And we can again look at the past and perhaps learn from the
past and apply those lessons to the future, which we must do and can
do. And if we pay attention to really look at the information and the
facts and the data, we can do the right thing, and that is availing the
resources to our military, to those most highly trained, those closest
to the situation, and allow those folks to make the right decision.
I yield back, but I certainly appreciate this opportunity and would
certainly encourage my friend from Iowa to continue his pursuits here,
because I think it is helpful, and I hope to join again. Thank you.
Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentleman from Nebraska, a Mr. Smith
who has come to Washington to stand up for middle-American values, and
to hold the line on the spending in the Budget Committee, hold the line
on the constitutional issues with the micromanagement that is coming
out of here with this supplemental spending bill, this emergency
supplemental spending bill.
And I will make no such pledge that it isn't my job to challenge the
people with whom I disagree with. In fact, I believe it is my job to do
that, and I intend to step up every time and draw those bright lines
when I think it is imperative that those bright lines be drawn.
So here we are with this bill on the floor being debated several
hours today, with 1 or 2 hours left in the debate for tomorrow. And
maybe it will go to final passage, maybe the votes won't be there,
maybe the vote will get pulled down just like D.C. voting was pulled
down today. They take it all the way through the process, and, at the
time it is supposed to go up on the board, realize, we lost the debate,
so now we can't allow a vote. That is exactly what happened here in the
House of Representatives today. The people's voice wasn't heard.
We have got a little debate to go tomorrow. People are going to sleep
on this tonight, and they are going to think about the President asking
for $99 billion to provide for Afghanistan and Iraq, the surge in Iraq,
the strategy that was part of the Iraq Study Group's recommendation,
the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's recommendation, and the effort to
succeed in Iraq.
And it is interesting that the President has retooled our approach
here. We have a new Secretary of Defense, Secretary Gates; we have a
new Secretary, at least an Acting Secretary of the Army, Mr. Geren; and
we have a new Commander at Walter Reed Hospital, we have a new
Commander of CENTCOM. And this is a new plan, a new plan put together
by the individual who wrote the book on counterterrorism and the most
successful general that I believe that we have seen come out of the
Iraq theater, and that is General David Petraeus, I believe the most
impressive military individual I have met in my time here, in fact in
my life. And his strategy is part of the same strategy that the Iraq
Study Group put out. And having written the book on counterterrorism
and being endorsed without opposition for his confirmation for a fourth
star by the United States Senate, and within a week the United States
Senate is back trying to jerk the rug out from underneath his plan,
trying to oppose the surge in Iraq and trying to oppose the 21,500
extra troops that go in there. And now we are seeing a little wavering,
a little quavering, and some people going a little wobbly because they
are starting to see the positive signs in the effort in Baghdad.
Now, the situation there is kind of interesting, Mr. Speaker. Baghdad
and 30 miles around outside of Baghdad is where 80 percent of the
violence in Iraq is taking place. And it occurred to me, it was
actually back in December, I was reflecting back upon the 101st
Airborne 62 years earlier had been surrounded at Bastogne during the
Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Bastogne, a city that had seven
roads leading to it and through it, was the centerpiece of the
transportation link. It was the key to success or failure in the Battle
of the Bulge, and maybe it was the key to victory or defeat for either
side in World War II, at least in the European theater.
And so, as the 101st Airborne was surrounded at Bastogne, mercilessly
being shelled by the Germans, and the Germans demanded the surrender of
the 101st, General McCollum's response is famous, and it should echo
throughout all of American history when he said in his response to the
Germans, ``Nuts.'' We understood what that meant, being Americans. The
Germans didn't. They had to go get their linguists to try to understand
what it meant, and they still, I don't think, have figured out to this
day. Well, that was in one word, four letters, the American spirit of
defiance, the American spirit of perseverance.
And there they were surrounded at Bastogne, hopelessly surrounded,
and their response was, ``Nuts.'' We are hanging on and we are going to
defend Bastogne. And shortly thereafter we had General Patton and the
3rd Army that came and relieved the 101st Airborne. They argue to this
day that they didn't need the help of the 3rd Army, that they had the
Germans right where they wanted them.
That was the American spirit 62 years ago, Mr. Speaker, and today 80
percent of the violence is within Baghdad or 30 miles from Baghdad.
Baghdad is essentially surrounded; it is not a stronghold. We have
always gone wherever we wanted to go in Baghdad, or any other city in
Iraq for that matter, even though the press calls it a stronghold. We
went wherever we wanted to go, and we go more now than we did before.
Baghdad is significantly pacified, but Baghdad was surrounded by peace,
a relative peace at least, and the violence was in there.
Now, if we had pulled out, or if sometime in the future this side of
the aisle is successful in shutting off the resources so that our
military can't succeed in their mission, and we pull out of there, I
believe history will judge us nuts if we do such a thing, Mr. Speaker.
There is too much at stake. There is no discussion on this side of
the aisle here about the consequences for pulling out. No one has a
plan for victory. No one over there will utter the ``V'' word, the
victory word. No one will define it. They are just a group of
``defeatocrats'' that can't get it out of their head that America's
destiny is worth more than marking political points against your
opposition.
So we sit here with more than 3,000 lives sacrificed for the freedom
of the Iraqi people and the destiny of the world, because if we don't
defeat this enemy here in Iraq, as Prime Minister Maliki said right
here behind where I am standing right now, he said, ``If the terrorists
can't be defeated in Iraq, they can't be defeated anywhere.''
Now, if Mr. Murtha gets his way and troops are deployed out of Iraq,
the bill doesn't say where, but he has said where: Okinawa. Okinawa.
Over the horizon is Okinawa, and we can put our troops over there, and
then we can fly them wherever we need them whenever we need them. I
would say we might as well take them right to Afghanistan. And I am
going to explain the reason for that, Mr. Speaker.
[[Page H2948]]
First, this is a poster of Muqtada al-Sadr. He is quite an
interesting character. He started out in this conflict as a militia
general, and he wasn't doing very well down south of Baghdad a couple
of years ago when he suffered huge, huge casualties in the Madhi
militia. In fact, the casualties were so heavy that he decided to
become a politician instead of a general, and so he entered into and
built a little coalition and picked up 30 seats in the Iraqi
Parliament. He also took over the security on the civilian side of
Baghdad International Airport, along with one portion of the Shia
region of Baghdad and some of the area to the south. Muqtada al-Sadr,
not a friend of the United States, an individual who has empowered
himself by attacking the United States and denigrating the United
States and inspiring his followers the same way, and this is how he did
it.
And I was sitting in Kuwait City, the date is right here, June 11,
2004, waiting to go into Iraq the next day, and I was watching al-
Jazeera TV, Mr. Speaker. Now, Muqtada al-Sadr came on, this burly face,
and he was speaking in Arabic, so I was looking at the crawler
underneath in English, and it read just like this: ``If we keep
attacking Americans, they will leave Iraq the same way they left
Vietnam, the same way they left Lebanon, the same way they left
Mogadishu.'' That was Muqtada al-Sadr, June 11, 2004. Al-Jazeera TV. I
attest to that; I was there, I wrote it down; I saw it; I heard it. And
that is the statement that he made.
Now, I went back and picked up the book written by General Vo Nguen
Giap, and it is, ``How We Won the War.'' And he is writing about the
Vietnam war, how they won the war. And very early in the book he takes
the position that because the United States did not win a clear victory
in Korea, they understood that we would maybe not have the will to win
a clear victory in Vietnam. So their strategy from the beginning was to
fight the war in such a way that it would break down and defeat
American public opinion and encourage the antiwar activists all across
this country and around the world. That was a part of their calculated
strategy that is in the book, ``How We Won the War'' by General Giap.
Now, it hadn't occurred to me that because we settled for a truce at
the 38th parallel in Korea at the place, the same line as the beginning
of the war was the end of the war. But because we didn't push the
Communists all the way out of North Korea and draw a new line, they
believe that we could be defeated because we didn't demonstrate the
will to succeed.
Carl Von Clausewitz wrote the treatise on war, and the name of the
book is, ``On War.'' And he states in there, ``The object of war is to
destroy the enemy's will and ability to conduct war.'' To destroy the
enemy's will and ability, Mr. Speaker. And I believe Clausewitz lists
will ahead of ability because it is more important here. Your will to
succeed, your will to prevail is more important than your ability to
conduct war.
In other words, if you are fighting an enemy, and you destroy their
airplanes and their navy and their tanks and their guns and their
ammunition, and they still have the will to fight you, they will come
at you with IEDs or rocks or fists or boots or clubs, because they
still have the will to take you on.
But here in this Congress, there have been dozens, there are scores,
there, in fact, may be more than 100, there may be more than 200 that
don't understand that when they stand here on this floor and they speak
against our military's mission, they are encouraging people like
Muqtada al-Sadr when he is inspiring his people by saying, ``All we
have to do is keep attacking Americans, and they will pull out of Iraq
the same way they did Vietnam, Lebanon and Mogadishu.''
{time} 2145
And if we should do that, Mr. Speaker, I can show you the next poster
you will see on this floor, the next quote that will show up in the
news media.
This is another notorious individual: Osama bin Laden. Where is he?
We are looking diligently for him. One day we will find him.
But the lesson from Muktadr al-Sadr, the lesson that needs to be
understood by the Defeatocrats is that if we pull out of Iraq, we don't
win there. You have al Qaeda taking over. You have Iran coming in and
taking over 70 to 80 percent of the Iraqi oil. You have Iran with their
hand on the valve that could shut off at the Straits of Hormuz, 42.6
percent of the world's export oil. Doing so let's them control the
world economy, including that of the United States, including that of
China, empowering Russia, empowering Iran, intimidating and controlling
the entire Middle Eastern oil supply by Ahmadinejad. That is what is in
store for us if we don't prevail.
And so Maktadr al-Sadr has laid it out, and he has got a clear
vision. His vision isn't hard to figure out. General Giap has figured
it out, just from seeing that we would settle for a truce at the 38th
Parallel, and we have got Maktadr al-Sadr seeing that and Vietnam and
Lebanon and Mogadishu, and several others, by the way.
But if we pull out of Iraq, our troops aren't going to be deployed to
over the horizon, Mr. Murtha, or over to Okinawa, Mr. Murtha. They may
get to go home for a little while and polish their boots, but they are
going to Afghanistan, because that is the next stop for these
terrorists that are going to keep coming at us until we defeat them or
capitulate.
And so this will be the next quote you will see if we pull out of
Iraq. It will be Osama bin Laden this time, and he will be saying, if
we keep attacking Americans they will leave Afghanistan the same way
they left Vietnam, the same way they left Lebanon, the same way they
left Mogadishu, the same way they left Iraq. That is what is in front
of us if we don't have the will to prevail, Mr. Speaker.
And these kinds of unconstitutional supplemental or emergency
spending bills that tie so many strings on to the hands of the
Commander in Chief, that if he adheres to the language that is in here,
ties his hands so he can't win.
Now, why would you not be for victory? Why would you send money over
there and not provide a way for the troops to win?
This bill pulls us out of Iraq. That is the goal and they have said
so. Their goal is not victory. Their goal has been defeat for a long
time so they can say I told you so. To put a stain on this
administration perhaps. To try to gain political favor, perhaps. But
whatever is their motivation, I will submit that this appropriations
bill is unconstitutional because it is micromanagement of the duties of
the Commander in Chief.
And so I will submit that this Constitution gives this Congress three
responsibilities when it comes to war. The first one is to declare war.
We haven't done that since World War II. The second one is
constitutionally to raise and equip an Army and a Navy, and by
implication an Air Force. The third one is to fund the war. That is it.
No other constitutional responsibilities. Declare a war, raise a
military, fund military. But the President is Commander in Chief
because our founders lived through the mistakes of trying to run a war
with a whole series of micromanagers and trying to do so by consensus
or majority rule within the Continental Congress.
The Continental Congress tried to micromanage the war that was fought
by the Continental Army. And they were so stung by that painful effort,
and the only thing that preserved them was they had the will for
victory. They carried themselves through the hardest of times, barefoot
at Valley Forge, because they were determined that they were going to
defeat the British and establish a new nation. And that is the legacy
that the founders have passed along to us. And they drew bright lines
in this Constitution because they understood you couldn't fight a war
by committee. You couldn't fight a war if a Congress was going to
micromanage the Commander in Chief. So they drew the line clearly, and
there is no equivocation, and there is no historical record about the
founders wondering about who had what responsibility when it came to
fighting a war. No. It was the Commander in Chief. And they gave
Congress the authority, declare a war, raise the Army and the Navy, and
then, I said by implication, the Air Force, and fund it.
So if you don't want to support our military, and if you don't want
to support their mission, then you ought to have enough intestinal
fortitude to
[[Page H2949]]
come down here with a bill that unfunds our military and face the wrath
of the American people and the wrath of the United States military,
who, by the way, are 100 percent volunteers, not just to join the
military and put on the uniform, but for the mission that they are on.
Everyone there has had an opportunity to retire from the military in
such time since the beginning of this conflict. Yet, Mr. Speaker, they
step forward and they re-up and they volunteer in greater numbers than
one ever anticipated. These are brave souls that are on a mission. And
to say to them, after they have volunteered for one or two or three or
more deployments, well, thanks a lot for the effort, but we are not
going to let you finish the job, we are going to drag you home.
Well, I would say to that that I could quote a colonel that I went to
Iraq with not that long ago, and he said, and I don't know if I will
find it so I will speak from off the cuff and this will be close. It
won't be probably an exact quote. He said, don't save me. I volunteered
for this mission. Don't save me. I am here because I volunteered for my
children. I am here to fight this war so my children don't have to
fight this war. You are not doing me any favors if you try to pull me
out of this mission that I am committed to. And I have children at home
that I am here to defend.
Now, I would say, also, that probably the most profound statement
that I heard from a military person over there was a major from
Kentucky. And he is a farmer, a father, loved his cows, worried about
his bull, wanted to see the digital picture of his new bull, and loves
God. And he said to me, he said, we have everything we need. So when
you pray for us, meaning the military, pray for the American people.
Pray they understand the threat, and pray they do not lose their
resolve. We will not lose ours.
That is the kind of personnel we have that put their lives on the
line for the future of freedom in the world, for the safety of the
American people so that we can ultimately prevail in this long, long
war against these global terrorists who believe that their path to
salvation is in killing us.
It is not going to be easy. It is not going to be over quickly. And,
in fact, every time we step back and show weakness, it empowers the
enemy and we are more likely to hear this statement sooner.
But this is not over if we pull out of Iraq, as General Pelosi and
Mr. Murtha would like to do. It is not over. They will follow us here.
And they will be more empowered. They will have a base that is
protected that they can operate from out of Iraq. And you hand over
that oil money to the Iranians, they will be spending it to buy
missiles to deliver nuclear weapons, not just to Tel Aviv, not just to
Western Europe, but within a few short years to the United States. And
we will face an enemy that is a lot tougher than the one we are facing
right now.
We need to resolve this issue in the Middle East now. This is the
time to do so. Put the cross hairs on Iran's nuclear and tell them
cease fighting this proxy war against the United States within Iraq.
Resolve and pacify Iraq, and turn our focus over to Afghanistan.
Because if we don't do so, this man and his allies turn Iraq into a
terrorist base camp, and they turn their effort to Afghanistan to try
to drive us out of there and destroy the freedom that has been
established there, where people voted for the first time on that soil
in all of history.
That is what we are faced with. This is a long war. We need to step
up to it. We need to understand that. We need to let our voluntary
military perform their mission and stand with them, because not only do
we stand with our military, but we stand with them in their mission. I
do so on this side of the aisle. I challenge everyone on that side of
the aisle to do the same.
It is intellectually inconsistent to take a position that you can
support the troops and not their mission. And it is constitutionally
inconsistent, in fact unconstitutional, to micromanage a war from the
floor of Congress and tie so many strings in there that they can't be
met, so that it is certain that if this language passes and the
President adheres to it that there will be an end to this sort of
victory.
And I ask the President, Mr. Speaker, to stand on this
constitutionally. He has the authority to do intra-departmental
transfers. If the money goes to DOD and it is directed to an aircraft
carrier and we need armored Humvees and Strykers and bulletproof vests,
he can mothball that aircraft carrier and put the money where it is
needed. That is why he is Commander in Chief. That is constitutional.
This bill is not. And I urge that all Members stand up and vote ``no''
on this when it comes to the floor tomorrow.
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