[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23657-23658]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            REBUILDING IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, in 1838, John Quincy Adams, as a 
former President, came to this floor as a Member of the House of 
Representatives. In those days the conservatives in this Congress 
passed a rule banning the discussion of slavery on the House floor. 
Congressman John Quincy Adams, former President Adams, was outraged by 
that rule; but what he did was come to the House floor and a couple of 
times every week read letters from his constituents opposing slavery, 
demanding that slavery be abolished in the United States.
  Today, 160-some years later, many of us in this Chamber feel an 
outrage towards what is happening with Iraq and especially that the 
leaders in this Chamber are unwilling to debate many of the issues 
around Iraq, how they propose to spend $87 billion, asking the 
President for his plans, wanting the President's contributors and 
contractors in Iraq who are literally receiving hundreds of millions of 
dollars a week to account for those dollars.

                              {time}  1945

  I thought tonight, in the tradition of John Quincy Adams, I would 
read letters from constituents of mine around

[[Page 23658]]

the State who are expressing their views about Iraq.
  Kim writes, ``Why should we spend $87 billion when our own servicemen 
and women who were in Iraq only got one meal MRE, meal ready to eat, 
per day, went 30 days without showers, not enough heavy artillery or 
ammunition. They fought hard in Iraq and then come back and don't even 
get the GI Bill to pay for their educations and medical. Use the $87 
billion to compensate our military personnel first.'' That is Kim.
  A veteran, Jack, writes, ``Just a very short few months ago, we were 
asked, no told, that we had to turn over $70 billion,'' that was the 
first $70 billion, ``for the war in Iraq. That money was dispensed,'' 
Jack, a Vietnam vet writes, ``on the backs of veterans in decreased 
benefits; schools, health care, Social Security, Medicare, 
redistribution of wealth through the Bush tax cuts, even the active 
duty military was not excluded from cuts. Now the administration is 
asking for another $87 billion. Who's going to get thrown out in the 
cold when the next round of cuts come if Bush is given his $87 
billion,'' Jack, a Vietnam vet, writes.
  Michele writes, ``The way this grandmother sees it: for whatever the 
reasons, Bush wanted the war and misled the public to start it. Bush 
gave a tax cut to many of the wealthiest Americans, many of whom stated 
it was wrong. Bush has accumulated an unprecedented amount of campaign 
financing from these wealthy friends.''
  What these letters all home in on, Madam Speaker, is that we are 
today spending $1 billion a week in Iraq. $300 million of that $1 
billion is going to private contractors, many of them going to 
Halliburton, one of the largest companies in the United States, a 
company which still pays Vice President Cheney who used to work there, 
still pays him $13,000 a month, and people want these hundreds of 
millions of dollars of tax dollars going to these private contractors, 
people want them accounted for, as we can see in these letters.
  Joseph writes, ``We are between a rock and a hard place. We are over 
there because of lies and it looks as if we will be stuck there for 
many years to come. First, this administration should roll back the tax 
cuts for the wealthy.''
  If my colleagues recall, Congress passed, at the President's urging, 
tax cuts, literally hundreds of billions of dollars of tax cuts where 
43 percent of those tax cuts went to the richest 1 percent of people in 
this country. That is what Joe is writing about.
  ``In order to increase their now questionable integrity, this 
administration should agree to turn over total control of Iraq and its 
oil supplies to the U.N. and cooperate with the U.N. and our other 
allies 100 percent.''
  Again, Joe who writes in is troubled by the fact that we are giving 
hundreds of millions of dollars a week to private contractors who are 
not accountable, many of them the President's contributors, most of 
them the President's friends, and one of those companies a company that 
is still paying Vice President Cheney $13,000 a month.
  The last letter I would like to read is from Joseph. ``It appears we 
have no choice but to spend the $87 billion, but Congress should make 
sure that the money comes from a rollback of Mr. Bush's excessive tax 
cuts for the wealthy, which primarily benefits the rich in this 
country. I sincerely hope the Congress does not give the money to Mr. 
Bush without stipulations. Three million Americans have lost their 
jobs,'' actually about 3.5 million now. ``Three million Americans have 
lost their jobs in the country since Mr. Bush moved into the White 
House. More Americans are suffering and dying because they are unable 
to pay for proper health care and health care insurance. Exactly how we 
can afford to spend $87 billion is something that I don't even 
understand.'' That is a letter from Joe.
  Madam Speaker, I think it is clear what people in this country think. 
We need answers, we need accountability, and we really need to know the 
truth.

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