[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 81 (Friday, May 16, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E956]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  STATEMENT FROM WESLEY E. DAVEY, MASTER SERGEANT IN THE ARMY RETIRED 
                                RESERVES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 16, 2008

  Ms. McCOLLUM of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, while I was back in the 
Fourth Congressional District of Minnesota, I met with Wes Davey, a 
constituent and master sergeant in the Army Retired Reserves. He fought 
in Operation Iraqi Freedom and is concerned about the funding of the 
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As Congress begins to debate providing 
supplemental appropriations for these wars, I would like to enter Wes's 
thoughtful words into the Congressional Record.


                                                 St. Paul, MN,

                                                      May 2, 2008.
     Hon. Betty McCollum,
     Western Avenue North,
     St. Paul, MN.
       Dear Representative McCollum:  The President has requested 
     additional funding to continue the war in Iraq. Before the 
     members of Congress approve this budget, they should consider 
     doing three things.
       First, increase taxes in order to at least partially pay 
     for the current and future war funding requests. If these 
     wars are in our national interest as President Bush and 
     others have often told us, we should be willing to pay for 
     them; if these wars are not in our national interest, we 
     should get out of both countries.
       It is wrong for our generation to pass off the entire Iraq 
     and Afghanistan war debt to the future generations of 
     taxpayers, and it is also wrong for President Bush and 
     Congress to abrogate their fiscal responsibilities and expect 
     future presidents and future members of Congress to sort out 
     the funding mess from these wars.
       Second, the United States Treasury should sell war bonds 
     (as we did during WW2) to finance the portion of the war 
     costs not funded by increased taxes. We need to stop 
     borrowing money from foreign countries to finance our wars. 
     Countries such as Saudi Arabia and China are not loaning us 
     money because they have America's best interest at heart, and 
     their economic influence in our country is already too great.
       Third, Congress should set up a government internet website 
     which explains in detail to the American public how the wars 
     in Iraq and Afghanistan have been and will be financed. More 
     specifically, where the money has come from, be it China, 
     Saudi Arabia, or other countries, how much each foreign 
     country has loaned us, at what interest rates, and exactly 
     when and how those loans will be repaid.
       Thus far in these wars, President Bush has done his very 
     best to place an opaque window between war funding and the 
     American public, which goes against the belief by the 
     founders of our country that good government should transact 
     its business in the open.
           Sincerely,
     Wesley E. Davey.

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