[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24383-24384]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               LACK OF CREDIBILITY IN THIS ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I am taking this opportunity to focus 
attention on the lack of credibility of this administration. This 
administration has been revealed for attempting to mislead the American 
public, and they certainly have mismanaged this so-called Iraqi freedom 
war. This administration's credibility is on the line, and let me 
recount some of the reasons why.
  Every American now knows that there are no weapons of mass 
destruction, that this administration claimed they knew about, had 
identified and could document in Iraq. They even claimed that they had 
the drones that do surveillance that were capable of carrying weapons 
of mass destruction. That has been debunked. That is not true. They 
also claimed and there were weeks of stories in the paper about the 
President's claim that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase yellow 
cake, or uranium, from Niger. That has been found not to be true.

                              {time}  1945

  They claimed and tried to mislead the American public in several 
ways. They have been caught trying to tie 9/11 to Saddam Hussein, and 
they have had to back off of it, and they have looked rather foolish in 
doing that.
  But, really, to underscore this lack of credibility, imagine that 
Karl Rove, sitting at the right hand of the President of the United 
States, had the audacity, the temerity to call the press and to out an 
undercover CIA agent and the wife of an ambassador. Not only did he 
break the law, he endangered the life of this woman. And this is a man 
who is calling the shots in the White House, again whispering into the 
ear of the President, guiding and leading him.
  They also claimed, as they bombed Iraq, that Iraq would be rebuilt 
with the oil resources. We know that they secured the oil fields when 
they landed. And they told us that they would be pumping the oil and 
that the revenues from that oil would pay for the rebuilding. Well, 
those are just a few of the instances of misleading information, 
distortions, information that has managed to confuse the American 
people and create a lot of distrust.
  But I am not going to concentrate all of my 5 minutes on that. That 
story has been written. And I do not care how they try to do their 
little mini shake-up and pretend that Rumsfeld is not the point person 
that he is, and drag out Condoleezza Rice, who is supposed to put a 
better spin on it than Rumsfeld. I do not care how they try to do that. 
The fact of the matter is, the American people are unhappy.
  We are unhappy when we look at the request for $87 billion that this 
President has asked the American public to ante up, this $87 billion at 
a time when the economy is not well. When we have lost over 3.5 million 
jobs, where people are trying to make ends meet, cannot pay their bills 
and have plants that are closing down every day, the President asks the 
American people to ante up $87 billion because he is proposing to spend 
$850 million on Iraqi health care, including $150 million for a new 
Children's Hospital.
  The number of uninsured Americans has grown to 43.6 million in 2002, 
up from 41 million in 2001. There are 8.5 million children without 
health insurance. And I can keep on going. They want to do some housing 
in Iraq. The President proposes to spend $470 million on housing and 
construction, including $100 million to build 3,528 new houses in Iraq. 
How many Members of Congress could use some new housing in their 
districts?
  In the United States, we are experiencing a housing shortage on an 
unprecedented scale. According to the Millennium Housing Commission, 
there is currently a 1.8 million unit gap between the number of 
extremely low-income households and the number of affordable rental 
units available for these households.
  But let us not stop there. Let us move on to education. The 
President's proposal includes distributing 5 million science and math 
books, 1.2 million school supply kits for students, and as many as 
1,000 primary schools are being rehabbed. One Member on the other side 
of the aisle got on the floor and showed us the brand new book bags 
they bought for all of the children of Iraq. I had to remind him that 
children in my district do not even have books to put in a book bag.
  The President's signature program, No Child Left Behind, is 
underfunded by $8 billion. While we are witnessing this in this 
country, think about the lack of credibility that this administration 
has created with the way it has done these contracts.
  An August 28 Washington Post article noted that Halliburton, the 
company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts 
worth more than a couple billion dollars under Operation Iraqi Freedom 
and stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars more under a no-bid 
contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
  Bechtel has earned at least $350 million.
  Mr. Speaker, I could go on and on and on. But every night Members 
will be coming to the floor talking about the lack of credibility, the 
mismanagement and the shock and awe campaign that was put on. Well, Mr. 
President, we are going to shock and awe you. Mr. President, you are 
going to be shocked

[[Page 24384]]

when the people speak out and decide that they do not want this kind of 
representation.

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