[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 177 (Thursday, November 15, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14431-S14432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          APPROPRIATIONS BILLS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I want to talk about several things today. 
I want to start with this question of why, at the end of the 
legislative session, there is such intractability in trying to get the 
appropriations bills done.
  It is a paradox to me that President Bush, who has come to this town 
in the last 7 years, and at the start of his Presidency said, ``I want 
a fiscal policy that moves in a certain direction.'' He had a 
sufficient number of votes in the Congress to accommodate that so he 
said, ``Look, it appears in the next 10 years we are going to have very 
large budget surpluses, so I want put in place very large tax cuts, 
most of which will go to wealthy Americans.'' I did not support that, 
but a number of people in his party did, so it became enacted. I said 
we ought to be conservative. We ought to worry things might change. 
Maybe these surpluses won't appear. We do not have them yet. They are 
only projections.
  Well, guess what? The President got his fiscal policy, and those 
surpluses did not, in fact, appear. We faced a recession, 9/11, a war 
in Afghanistan, a war in Iraq, and a continuing war against terrorism--
all of which has been very costly. We have run up $3 trillion in debt 
with this President's fiscal policy--$3 trillion. Now, I think it is 
unusual that at this stage of this session of Congress the President 
has done two things. He has sent to this Congress a request for $196 
billion in emergency funding for the war in Afghanistan and Iraq--
mostly for Iraq.

[[Page S14432]]

He wants $196 billion in emergency funding--none of it paid for. He 
says: This is my priority. If you do not support it, you do not support 
the troops. We do not intend to pay for it. It is called an emergency.
  At the same time, he has made another request of Congress. He has 
said: The budget I sent to you is a budget locked in stone, and if you 
do not meet those numbers, if you are over those numbers on anything, I 
intend to veto the bills.
  Eight to ten appropriations bills he has threatened to veto. We are 
$22 billion over the President's numbers in his budget for investment 
here at home. I am talking about the things that improve roads, do the 
water projects that are necessary, build infrastructure, invest in 
health, and invest in education. We are $22 billion over the 
President's budget request.
  The President says: I will have none of that. The money we are 
spending to invest in things here at home, we will not compromise on 
that. I will veto all of those bills. So I am going to be a fiscally 
responsible President on $22 billion with respect to investments in 
this country, and then I demand $196 billion from you in Congress, on 
an emergency basis. None of it paid for. All of it borrowed in order to 
prosecute the war.
  By the way, that $196 billion is not all to support the troops. A 
substantial part of it is for contractors. I have been on the floor 
talking about the greatest waste, fraud, and abuse in the history of 
this country with contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have been 
stolen blind by contractors.
  One short story: This country says that we will commit to building 
144 health clinics in Iraq. So our Government hires a contractor to go 
build health clinics in Iraq. The money is all gone. Over $200 million 
of the money is gone, but the health clinics do not exist. Out of over 
200 health clinics, there are only 20 in operation.
  An Iraqi doctor came to see me and testified at a policy committee 
hearing. He said: I went to the health minister of Iraq to find out 
where these health clinics were because I knew the American taxpayer 
spent the money for them. The contractor got the money to build them, 
and I wanted to go see these health clinics and tour them to find out 
what has been done. The Iraqi health minister said: You don't 
understand. Most of these are imaginary clinics. They have never been 
built.
  Well, the money is gone. The contractor got the money. The American 
taxpayer got fleeced. The President wants more money, an additional 
$196 billion. He says: If I don't get it, then you don't support the 
troops. Then he says: By the way, I don't support the extra $22 billion 
to invest in health care, to invest in energy, to invest in water 
projects, to invest in roads, or to invest in this country.
  I say to the President, it is time, long past the time, to start 
taking care of things in this country. I have a list on my desk of 
water projects that we are doing in Iraq costing hundreds and hundreds 
of millions of dollars. I have the specific names of the water projects 
which we are building in Iraq. The President also says he wants over a 
half a billion dollars less in funding than the Congress is 
recommending for the Corps of Engineers to build water projects in this 
country. This is funding to repair dams, to do dredging, and to do the 
things we need to do to fix water projects in this country.
  Why such a reluctance to invest here at home? I do not understand it. 
But why the contradiction? The President wants to spend $196 billion--
without paying for any of it--and then crow to the east that somehow he 
is a fiscal conservative because he is opposed to $22 billion spent 
here at home.
  Now in the next several weeks, we are going to have to reconcile 
this, and I hope, in one way or another, this President will be able to 
try to find out what his true identity is. It certainly is not a fiscal 
conservative. That is talk. Talk is cheap.
  Look at what he is asking for: $196 billion to be added to the debt. 
None of it paid for. All of it borrowed. Then he says that he is 
opposed to $22 billion to invest here at home.
  That is not fiscal conservatism. That is ignoring needs here in this 
country and spending money in a profligate way, especially on 
contractors which are fleecing the American people in my judgement. I 
hope we can reach an agreement on meeting our appropriations needs. 
That is what we need to do. This place works and this democracy works 
by agreement and compromise with people of good will.

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