[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6477-6478]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I believe and certainly hope that our Armed 
Forces will achieve a quick and decisive victory in Iraq, and certainly 
we all hope that this can be done without the loss of even one American 
life and very few, if any, and hopefully no innocent Iraqi civilians, 
but every article we read, every analyst we hear says that winning the 
peace, the aftermath will be much more difficult than the war itself.
  I know that people in the White House, the State Department and the 
Defense Department have been working on this aftermath plan for many 
months now. Because of something I heard on a news broadcast last week, 
I want to briefly discuss this.
  Last Wednesday night, as I drove to a meeting here in Washington, I 
heard on the national news that the Baghdad stock market was booming. 
The report said prices had gone up more than 50 percent in the last 7 
months because investors there feel that the war will be very short and 
that the U.S. will then spend hundreds of billions of dollars there 
over the next 10-years or so. Last week, the National Journal, a very 
nonpartisan publication, said we will spend at least $156 billion in a 
best-case scenario and as much as $1.9 trillion in a worst-case 
scenario over the next 10 years in Iraq.

[[Page 6478]]

  Already, big multinational companies like Halliburton, Bechtel and 
others are lining up to get part of the pie and to make sure that we 
spend this money in Iraq. If I and my fellow conservatives, who were so 
critical of the previous administration about nation-building, do not 
speak out against this, this will end up being by far the biggest 
foreign aid program in the history of the world.
  The same people who have told us how great the threat from Iraq is 
also tell us the war will be over with very quickly. Iraq's military 
budget is only about 2/10 of 1 percent of ours, counting our 
supplemental appropriations. So this will be about the most lopsided 
war in history if the mentally sick, evil Saddam Hussein does not back 
down. Everyone should hope that we achieve a quick and decisive 
victory, as I said, without the loss of even one American life.
  Service in our Nation's Armed Forces is one of the most honorable 
ways one can serve this Nation. When we put young American soldiers and 
sailors into harm's way, I know all Americans hope for the best and 
support our troops. I wish we would get in and get out quickly and 
bring our troops home as soon as possible.
  I have never believed that U.S. foreign policy or military decisions 
should be dictated or controlled by the United Nations. Yet it is also 
somewhat inconsistent to say, as some have, that this proves the U.N. 
is irrelevant and maybe we should get out, but then say we have to go 
to war because Iraq has violated 16 U.N. resolutions. It is not fair, 
Mr. Speaker, to the U.S. taxpayers or the U.S. military to place almost 
the entire burden of enforcing U.N. resolutions on them.
  Also, the Congressional Budget Office has predicted we will run 
deficits of $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years. This is not counting 
State and local deficits. If we spend hundreds of billions in Iraq over 
the next decade, we will not be able to meet all our own needs here at 
home. We have already spent about $25 billion or so just moving our 
troops, planes, ships and equipment into place. Also, most of our 
allies are demanding billions for their support.
  If we do not become more fiscally conservative, especially in regards 
to this war, we may have difficulty in paying all our Social Security, 
Medicare, veterans' and Federal retirements and so forth. We could end 
up then doing what most governments around the world have already done, 
and that is a combination of decreasing benefits, raising taxes, or, 
most likely, inflating our currency, which means pensions will buy 
less.
  Iraq should use their humongous oil wells to rebuild their own 
country. U.S. taxpayers should not have to pay our bills and theirs, 
too.
  Conservatives have traditionally been the strongest opponents to 
turning our military into international social workers. Conservatives 
have also been the strongest opponents of big deficit spending, huge 
foreign aid programs, nation-building and world government. Most 
conservatives are against an interventionist foreign policy, but all 
conservatives unify behind our troops and support the patriotic young 
men and women who are simply following orders.
  However, after this war is over, I hope my fellow conservatives will 
unite once again and urge that our troops be brought home quickly and 
that we in the American Congress start putting Americans first once 
again. Let us achieve victory in Iraq, but not follow that up with the 
biggest foreign aid program in history.

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