[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 147 (Thursday, December 4, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H8655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FUNDING THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

  (Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, columnist Roger Simon wrote the 
following in one of the Capitol Hill newspapers several weeks ago:
  If you spent 13 years pounding money down a rathole with little to 
show for it, you might wake up one morning and say, ``Hey, I am going 
to stop pounding money down this rathole.''
  Unfortunately, the U.S. Government does not think that way. The U.S. 
Government wakes up every morning and says, ``The rathole is looking a 
little bit empty today, let's pound a few more billion dollars down 
there.'' And when that rathole is Afghanistan, the billions are 
essentially without end.
  He added that we have spent several billions trying to stop opium 
production there but that during U.S. occupation, drug production in 
Afghanistan has actually increased.
  By one very conservative estimate, we have spent $753 billion on the 
war in Afghanistan since 2001. The defense bill today contains $63.7 
billion for the overseas contingency account, meaning many billions 
more for the rathole in Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, when will we come to our senses?

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