[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21709]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            THANK YOU TO GENERAL SHINSEKI AND LARRY LINDSEY

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, well over 6 months ago, Secretary of the 
Army, General Shinseki, was asked his opinion about how many soldiers 
we would need in Iraq. He said a couple hundred thousand. Today, we 
have about 180,000 troops in Iraq and Kuwait. The President's economic 
adviser, Larry Lindsey, was asked what he thought the cost of the war 
would be. He said around $200 billion. Today, we are nearing $160 
billion.
  When those two gentlemen were asked their professional judgment, they 
were run out of town, ridiculed, their careers were run down for what 
they did. Today, as we look at what they said 6 months ago, they were 
right on both accounts.
  We do not do this enough in this town. So to General Shinseki and to 
Larry Lindsey, I want to thank you for your patriotism and I want to 
thank you for your honesty. Had we listened to you a long time ago, or 
at least had the willingness to have an honest debate, we would have 
known that we would have 187,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of war. And 
to Larry Lindsey, who predicted it would cost us about $200 billion of 
hard-earned taxpayer money, if we had listened to you rather than run 
you down, we would be honest and be able to handle this $87 billion 
that the President has requested.
  So, again, thank you for your patriotism and thank you for your 
honesty.

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