[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 27078]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  $87 BILLION BETTER SPENT IN AMERICA

  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, the Senate on a voice vote yesterday, kind 
of pathetic, voted to borrow $87 billion from the American people for 
the conflict in Iraq. A substantial portion of that is to go to 
rebuild, or build, not rebuild, build the infrastructure of Iraq. As 
the gentlewoman from Ohio said, some of it is going to pay Iraqis for 
make-work or no-show jobs when we cannot get unemployment benefits for 
Americans here. If we took that money and we divided it up, there are 
435 of us here in the House of Representatives, and we divided it up 
among our congressional districts, that would be $220 million per 
congressional district.
  Now, my district has just about the highest rate of unemployment in 
the United States. My State has the highest rate of unemployment, my 
district and the gentleman from Oregon's (Mr. Walden) are unfortunately 
right up there in the State. Mr. Speaker, $22 million could mean a lot 
for us. It could put a lot of people to work.
  Albany, Oregon, under Federal mandate, is going to borrow money to 
build a new water system. Of course, we are going to give $50 million 
to Iraq to build a new water system for one city. Sweet Home, Oregon, 
same thing. Federal mandate. They can borrow some money, but we are 
going to give money to Iraq to build them new water systems.
  My port of Port Orifice sewage system, fell into the ocean after a 
big storm. Problem. The Federal Government says this depressed little 
coastal community, they will lend them some money to help them do that 
project; lend them some money. But, in Iraq, we are going to give them 
new sewer systems. The American people are borrowing money to build 
these projects in Iraq with no prospect of being repaid under the 
leadership of President Bush.
  We could also, with the same $220 million, guarantee my coastal 
ports, which were zeroed out in the President's budget for continued 
dredging maintenance, we could dredge those ports for 5 years. We still 
have not spent $220 million yet. We are working on it. This is just one 
district. Just imagine what this would mean across the United States of 
America if every Member of Congress got to take that $220 million home 
instead of sending it over to this deep pit in Iraq.
  We could give 1,000 students full tuition, room and board at the 
University of Oregon or Oregon State in my district; 10,000 community 
college scholarships. Instead of them having to borrow money from the 
Federal Government, we could have given them scholarships. This is just 
one congressional district. We could give thousands, more than 10,000 
students full tuition, a free ride for the year. We could put thousands 
to work on infrastructure projects meeting Federal mandates. That is 
just one congressional district. Imagine if that were repeated across 
the United States of America. If only the President would borrow money 
to invest here, or even spend money like the unemployment trust fund.
  Now, since this $87 billion that was borrowed or authorized yesterday 
by the Senate, the President will probably sign the bill soon, 
following the $79 billion that we borrowed last April which is not yet 
spent, we have to wonder, what is the plan? The plan was to vote on 
borrowing another $87 billion before they spent the $79 billion. And so 
what are we going to do to bring stability? Well, now they say what 
they are going to do is train Iraqis. Now, on September 5, Donald 
Rumsfeld said there were 55,000 Iraqis all told, including security 
guards, et cetera, trained. Since then the estimates of the Iraqi 
forces have grown at the rate that would mean they have trained 1,000 
people a day. Wow. Must be some program. Unfortunately, they have not 
yet begun the $1.2 billion program to train Iraqis in Jordan to become 
police and security. Yes, that is right. We are going to pay $1.2 
billion. The French and the Germans offered to do it for free, and they 
are good at training people do to that, but God forbid that we should 
save the American taxpayers $1.2 billion and take something from the 
French and Germans that they are good at. So the Jordanians and, of 
course, we know they are really good at this, are going to be training 
the Iraqis to become police. But somehow, magically the numbers keep 
going on up. It is like zip, zip, zip.
  Then last week Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz speaking in 
Georgetown raised that figure to 90,000. Three days later Rumsfeld said 
100,000.
  Now, how is this happening? Do we think this is really happening? Do 
we think we can believe these folks? Now remember, these are the same 
people who told us, this is a country that can afford to rebuild itself 
and pay for its own reconstruction, and soon. That is what we were 
told. That is what the American people were told. They would be waving 
little flags, welcoming us as victors. Our kids do not have the flak 
jackets they need because Rummy said there would only be 30,000 
Americans there by now, and we have more than 30,000 flak jackets. They 
have planned miserably.
  I would recommend to my colleagues and everybody, Blueprint for a 
Mess from the New York Times on Sunday, November 2, New York Times 
magazine, the best compilation of the total abysmal failure to plan 
and, in fact, to reject planning for the postwar Iraq by this 
administration.

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