[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23277-23278]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             AMERICA FIRST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, well, the President has asked the United 
States Congress in the name of the American people to borrow $87 
billion to continue the actions in Iraq and to rebuild the nation of 
Iraq. That is going to be paid for by a couple of generations of 
working Americans, and there are an awful lot of questions about the 
request by the President.
  Now, let us look at some of the details here: $20.3 billion to 
rebuild Iraq borrowed by the American people and sent to Iraq, perhaps 
utilizing some U.S. contractors such as Halliburton. Here are some of 
the things we are going to pay for: $20 million for executive job 
training, a 4-week class at the cost of $10,000. I have community 
colleges in my district that would provide that same class for a tiny 
fraction of that cost whose budgets are underfunded because of the cuts 
in the Federal Government's spending on education. $10,000 a person for 
a 4-week class, send them to my community college. We can house them 
and educate them for a lot less.
  Then we have the $100 million for the witness protection program. 
What witnesses? Well, the witnesses that might come forward to tell us 
something about the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, among 
other things. That will be to pay for 100 Iraqi families at $1 million 
each. In the United States of America when we put people in the witness 
protection program, it generally costs $120,000 per family. So it is 
going to cost us roughly eight times more per family, but I guess that 
is because of the high cost of living in Iraq, or the life-style to 
which they would like to become accustomed. Again, the American people 
will borrow this money, or the President is asking Congress to borrow 
it on behalf of the American people.
  It is going to cost $255 per person in Iraq to rebuild the 
electricity infrastructure. They said we are not just rebuilding the 
bomb damage; they have this horribly outdated system, and we have to 
rebuild it.
  Mr. Speaker, guess who else has a horribly outdated electricity 
infrastructure system? The United States of America. Did the President 
notice that the lights went off in one-third of the country? Also, we 
had a big blackout in the West a few years ago. Our system is operating 
on the edge. What is the President proposing here, $255 will be 
borrowed for each Iraqi by the American people, sent to Iraq to rebuild 
their electricity infrastructure, and the President is asking for 71 
cents on behalf of every American here in the United States.
  It will cost $45 million to further improve the already fully 
functioning port of Umm Qasr while the President is proposing zero 
dollars to dredge ports in my district and elsewhere in the United 
States because he says we cannot afford it. He is asking to borrow $45 
million and send it to Iraq to further improve their ports, but he 
cannot find a penny for ports in the Pacific Northwest and other parts 
of the United States.
  It is going to cost $150 million for a national 911 system in Iraq. 
Mr. Speaker, is that so they can call the next time a rogue regime 
uprises? What does this have to do with the war? The American people 
are going to borrow $150 million because the President wants it, send 
it to Iraq to give them a 911 system.
  Job centers, 22 centers, $350,000 each. If we took the $20.3 billion 
the President wants this Congress to borrow and spend on behalf of 
rebuilding the nation of Iraq, if we matched that dollar per dollar in 
the United States of America, if we borrowed $20.3 billion to rebuild 
the infrastructure system in the United States, we could put 1 million 
Americans to work in the very near future, in addition to investing in 
our future, our economic productivity, our ports, our highways, our 
water systems, our electricity grid.
  It is one thing to borrow money to invest in the United States of 
America; it is another thing to indebt the next two generations of 
Americans to borrow money to spend rebuilding Iraq.

[[Page 23278]]

Mr. Wolfowitz told us they can pay for their own reconstruction. I 
guess that guy made about a $50 billion mistake that is going to cost 
the American taxpayers, but he is still held in highest esteem by the 
Bush administration. He is still working there. He is still pumping out 
the same mistakes. How many more billions will he cost us before the 
President demands his resignation. This is outrageous that the American 
people are being asked to borrow this money. Instead of borrowing 
money, investing in infrastructure and putting a million Americans to 
work here, he is proposing more tax cuts. His last tax cut, the 
dividend tax cut, returned 5 cents on the dollar to the United States 
economy. If it is spent on infrastructure, we get $7 for every dollar 
borrowed.
  Mr. Speaker, let us get our priorities straight: America first.

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