[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24982]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 SAY NO TO ADDED DEBT FOR OUR CHILDREN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, this is not a debate about whether or not 
to fulfill our moral obligation to continue to work in Iraq. It is a 
debate about how to do it. It does not matter how we got into Iraq. We 
are there now. Americans of all stripes, those who supported the war 
and those who oppose it, know in their hearts that we are united in our 
desire to support our proud troops in the field and to continue our 
work in Iraq.
  I will be joining the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak) and others 
in an attempt to increase the pay of those men and women who are making 
such a sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow. But we owe these 
proud Americans in the field more than just that. We owe them a 
willingness to make some measure of sacrifice at home that is even the 
smallest fraction of the sacrifice they make overseas.
  The bill before us takes the irresponsible road and fails to truly 
call upon us at home to actually pay for the costs of this war. This 
bill proposes to avoid any sacrifice at home by stealing every single 
dollar it spends from the Social Security trust fund to wage this war. 
Every single dollar proposed to be spent will deplete the very funds 
that will be depleted by the forthcoming retirement of the baby boom 
generation. Every single dollar spent will be new debt foisted upon the 
shoulders of our children. Every single dollar that will be borrowed 
could hinder our economic recovery.
  Why is this? Why is this short-sighted way being taken? Well, it is 
the addiction to the credit cards and it is wrong. It is a multi-
billion dollar moral wrong to our children who have this debt put on 
their shoulders. And there is a better way.
  We ought to ask for the smallest sacrifice at home to match that of 
our troops and reduce just a portion of the tax cut that people who 
earn over $300,000 will otherwise receive to pay for this war.
  Do you know anyone who thinks that is unfair? Now, I remember the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) urged us to fight. Well, we will do 
that, but we cannot just fight the war in Iraq. We have got to fight 
the war on the Federal deficit too. And this bill will only fight one 
of those wars. We ought to have the courage to fight both.
  If it is important enough for us to ask our troops to pay for this 
war with their lives, with their limbs, then it ought to be important 
enough for us to pay for this war without passing the cost on to our 
children, on to our soldiers' children.
  This bill guarantees defeat. It runs up the white flag in the face of 
the deficit. It cuts and runs from the war on the Federal deficit and 
we should fight both.
  Today there are men and women standing up for us in Iraq and we ought 
to stand up for them and say yes to supporting our troops and stand up 
for their children and say no to $87 billion in debt.

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