[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23281]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    THE COST OF IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McCotter). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 140 years or so ago, former President 
John Quincy Adams came to the House floor and read letters from his 
constituents about slavery and about the abolitionists because the 
House actually passed a rule in 1838 saying that Congress could not 
debate the issue of slavery on the House floor, believe it or not.
  Today, we have not really been free; we have not had committee 
hearings; we have not had floor debate on a lot of the questions about 
what is happening in Iraq, getting answers from the President and from 
the administration about the reconstruction, the cost, how the money is 
being spent; all of that, and I have gotten letters from hundreds of 
constituents asking for answers to those questions.
  But what we have seen, Mr. Speaker, is information from the Bush 
administration that obfuscates, that deceives, that simply does not 
tell us.
  Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz recently said, ``No one that I 
know of would ever say that this war is cheap.''
  Well, that is not what the President's people were telling us before 
the invasion. Budget Director Mitch Daniels said Iraq, back then, 
before the attack, said Iraq would be ``an affordable endeavor that 
will not require sustained aid.''
  Now, Jane from Sheffield Lake, Ohio, wrote to me, ``We cannot let 
this enormous deception from the Bush administration continue.''
  Back several months ago, White House economist Glen Hubbard said the 
costs of any intervention would be very small.
  Edward from Akron in my district wrote, ``I believe we were duped by 
this administration through misleading statements and outright lies.''
  Larry Lindsey, the President's Chief Economic Adviser, estimated the 
war in Iraq would cost $100 billion to $200 billion, the war and the 
aftermath and the reconstruction. He was shunned by the administration 
after saying that. He was later fired because of that.
  From Akron Ohio, Susan writes, ``Please represent us in Summit County 
and get to the bottom of these untruths and these lies.''
  Mr. Speaker, we have seen the President's proposal to spend $87 
billion. That is just this year. That is in addition to the $65 billion 
check that Congress and the American people have already written to the 
President for the war in Iraq. This $87 billion details how the 
President's request allocates $157 per Iraqi, U.S. taxpayers pay $157 
per Iraqi, for sewage improvements, but in the President's budget there 
is only $14 per American for sewage improvement in this country.
  The administration, according to the President's request for this $87 
billion, is devoting $38 per Iraqi for hospitals, but in this country, 
only $3.30 per American citizen for hospitals.
  The President is seeking almost $6 billion to rebuild and expand 
Iraq's electricity generation and distribution system, as millions of 
Americans are regaining power lost from Hurricane Isabel and as 
Congress continues, frankly, not very well in this Congress, to deal 
with the fallout from the August blackout.
  The President requests from the $87 billion, 350 times more money for 
Iraqis individually; $255 per Iraqi for electrical power 
rehabilitation, 71 cents per American for electrical power 
rehabilitation.
  Mr. Speaker, Americans need some answers. How are we going to spend 
this money? Where has the $1 billion a week gone now? We need 
accountability. We need, most importantly, for the President to assure 
us that our troops will be well-supplied, and that our troops will be 
safer than they have in the past.
  In fact, I received a call just last night from a young man whom I 
know who was injured in Iraq from my district. He spent 70 days in the 
hospital. Because of this administration's policy, he owes $550 back to 
Bethesda Hospital, back to the government, because the government has 
charged him, believe it or not, $8.10 for every day's meal he has eaten 
in that hospital as an injured soldier in the United States of America, 
injured in the battlefield in Iraq. Yet, now the administration simply 
is not telling us how we are going to spend that money, not making the 
private contractors, many of them friends of the President who are 
getting literally hundreds of millions of dollars, not disclosing where 
that money is going, how they are spending it.
  I would close, Mr. Speaker, Elizabeth from Akron writes, ``The Bush 
administration's blatant disregard for the ability of the American 
people to sort through, to discuss and to reach reasonable conclusions 
on important issues is disturbing. What else aren't they telling us? 
What other lies are they trying to foist on us? Whether one supported 
the war or not, the question of the obvious and overwhelming deceptions 
the administration seems to regard as normal is disturbing.''

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