[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14113-14114]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           QUIBBLING ABOUT PAYMENTS TO IRAQIS IN NO-SHOW JOBS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Blackburn). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Madam Speaker, today the headline in The New York Times 
reads: ``Iraqis are out of jobs, but payday still comes.''
  With the administration's and the President's blessings, 200,000 
Iraqis,

[[Page 14114]]

employees of the government ministries and government-owned companies, 
are being paid $20 a day for no-show jobs. They do not work. They are 
getting paid $20,000 a day by the American taxpayers. They do not work.
  Let me read from the article. The story describes how ``mechanics 
linger listlessly around machines that don't run; clerical employees 
wait for assignments that never come. Most don't even bother to show up 
at all, except on payday,'' to collect their $20. There are 200,000 
Iraqi people being paid $20 a day for no-show jobs. Now, I come from 
Chicago, and I know a couple party bosses in Chicago that would be 
really envious about 200,000 getting paid $20 a day for no-show jobs. 
They do not have to do anything, and they do not have to show up except 
for payday.
  What is interesting is if we do the math, these families in Iraq are 
getting about $1,000, equal to what we are asking for the children and 
their working parents here in America; for hardworking people who pay 
taxes to get as a child tax credit the same that this Iraqi citizen who 
has never worked, is not working, is getting, with the American 
taxpayers footing the bill for $1,000 for their no-show job.
  I go on to read from the article. According to one American official, 
an American official working for the government, working for the 
taxpayers of this country, for the U.S.-led administration in Iraq, he 
says, ``This is going to continue for a good while. Nobody is going to 
quibble about paying a few more dinars into this economy to get things 
moving.''
  Well, this person is going to quibble. I do not know where we come 
off paying $20 a day to somebody who does not do any work, does not 
show up. Yet we have hardworking Americans who are trying to raise 
their children, who are trying to do right by their children, trying to 
raise them with the right values, to know the difference between right 
from wrong; and they are going to deserve a tax credit just like every 
other child in America. They are America's children, too.
  Now, if we can find the good will to pay these Iraqis $20 a day for 
no-show, coming to about $1,000, which is the same amount as we are 
asking for a child credit for 6\1/2\ million American families, they 
would get $1,000 per child, it would be the same amount as the Iraqi 
citizens.
  If they do not have a quibble there, I do not have a quibble here. 
But I have a quibble if we are going to give these people $20 a day for 
no-show, $1,000 in the last 2 months, and we cannot find the 
wherewithal to give 6.5 million American families, 12 million American 
children, the same tax break other children are getting or other Iraqis 
are getting.
  President Bush, who often says he likes to note that he is a man of 
his word, who says what he believes and believes what he says, and says 
what he does and does what he says, ``My jobs and growth plan will 
reduce taxes for everyone,'' at the signing of the bill the President 
said, ``We have taken aggressive action to strengthen the foundation of 
our economy so that every American who wants to work will be able to 
find a job.''
  Well, we have people who are working who deserve a tax cut. They are 
not getting a tax cut. We have got 9 million Americans who are 
unemployed, 6.1 percent. When this administration started, they had 4 
percent unemployment. We have got 6.1 percent unemployment now. We have 
added $3 trillion to the Nation's debt, and 3 million Americans have 
lost their jobs. As we say back in Chicago, what a deal.
  That is what has happened here. We have added $3 trillion to the 
Nation's debt and 3 million Americans are without jobs. Corporate 
interests and special interests are getting tax cuts, and the American 
people are paying with their jobs. Now we are footing the bill for $20 
a day for people who do not show up for work, and yet we are denying 12 
million American children their sense of economic justice.
  If we do not take care of this problem today and take up what the 
Senate did, 94 Senators, Democrats and Republicans, if we do not take 
it up, these children's children, these families, Americans, 
hardworking families trying to do right for their children will be 
denied the same tax cut that will be provided for those children of 
other families here in America and have been denied that same $1,000 we 
are providing for the families in Iraq.
  I think it is high time, after 3 million unemployed Americans, 5 
million more Americans without health care since when the President 
took over, $1 trillion worth of corporate assets that have been closed 
down since this President's economic plan has been adopted, and 2 
million Americans walked out of middle class to poverty, I think it is 
high time we take these 12 million children who are part of 6.5 million 
families and give those hardworking Americans a tax cut. They deserve 
the same chance at that dream.
  We are going to build a dream for Iraq, a better future for Iraq, one 
with roads, one with 13 million Iraqis with health care, 4 million 
Iraqi children will get early childhood education. Yet we are cutting 
58,000 Americans from Head Start.
  If we are going to do this for Iraq, I call on the Speaker, I call on 
the President, and I call on the majority leader, who have denied these 
12 million children the same economic equality and the same economic 
vision of a better future tomorrow that we have provided to these 
Iraqis who are getting $20 a day from the American taxpayer for no-show 
jobs.

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