[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12042-12043]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       PROVIDING IRAQIS WITH BETTER OPPORTUNITIES THAN AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, last week the Associated Press reported 
that Iraqis are paying 5 cents a gallon for gas in Iraq, 5 cents. Why 
are Iraqis getting such a good deal? Because the American taxpayer is 
subsidizing the Iraqis to the tune of $167 million a month, 
approximately $500 million over 3 months.
  Here in the United States on average Americans are paying over $2 a 
gallon for gas, up approximately 50 cents since the beginning of the 
war in Iraq. Fill up a car with gas, a little north of $50; yet in Iraq 
to do the same costs you about a dollar, what would cost us here $50. 
We are subsidizing them, the American taxpayer, to the tune of $167 
million a month. Here in the United States, what have we done? Nothing.
  I am not against building and rebuilding Iraq after the war, but I am 
opposed to providing Iraqis with a better opportunity than we provide 
Americans, and I am not just talking about gas prices.
  Take health care. They have health care. We have opened up 150 health 
clinics and hospitals throughout Iraq, providing 100,000 with prenatal 
and infant coverage costing Americans taxpayers $1 billion. In the 
United States, 44 million Americans are without health insurance; 33 
million Americans work full-time without health care; 10 million 
American children are without health care. What do we do?
  In the area of jobs, in Iraq we provide universal job training. In 
the United States, under the President's budget we cut $238 million 
from job training programs.
  Veterans in Iraq, $60 million is being spent to train the Iraqi 
veterans from past wars.

                              {time}  2015

  In the United States, under the President's budget, we are cutting 
$257 million from American veterans medical care.
  In the area of education, in Iraq, we built 2,300 schools. In 
America, under the President's budget, we have underfunded by $8 
billion the Leave No Child Behind Act. In Iraq, universities are 
receiving $20 million for higher education partnerships. In America, we 
have cut Perkins loans by $90 million and frozen the Pell grants for 3 
years in a row. That is the President's budget.
  Police. In Iraq, we are spending $500 million to retrain the police 
on security. In the United States, the COPS program for community 
policing throughout our country, supporting police officers, we have 
cut in the President's budget by $659 million.
  In the area of housing, in Iraq, we are spending $470 million for 
public housing. In the United States, under the President's budget, we 
cut $791 million from section 8.
  The environment, $3.6 billion in Iraq for water and sewer. In 
America, the President's budget cuts $500 million from the revolving 
fund.
  For roads, in Iraq, we are spending $240 million on new roads and 
bridges. In America, the Army Corps of Engineers' budget is cut by 10 
percent.

[[Page 12043]]

  We could go on and on with program after program. My colleagues know 
that in the election of 2000, then Governor Bush, now President Bush, 
declared he was opposed to nation-building. Who knew it was America he 
was talking about when he said he was opposed to nation-building? But 
the good news is that in the 2004 reelection, President Bush can say he 
kept his commitment in opposition to nation-building. The problem is, 
it is here at home.
  What do we have here at home? We have a higher unemployment rate than 
when he took office; more uninsured; college costs soaring now by 10 or 
12 percent a year, on average. Health care costs for a family of four 
was $6,500 3 years ago; today it is $9,000. Yet in Iraq in the areas of 
health care, education, job training, housing, and the environment, we 
are making investments that we do not promise here at home.
  This administration has two priorities, two sets of values, two sets 
of books: one for Iraq and one for America.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people are the most generous people in the 
world, but we can no longer afford to be so generous if our hope for a 
prosperous tomorrow for our children is diminished and less than the 
one we promise the people overseas. We cannot deny Americans the same 
dreams of affordable health care, quality education, a safe place to 
live that we promised the Iraqis, but denied the American people. The 
same values that we hold for Iraq we must pledge for every American as 
well.
  It is time that we look at the energy crisis we have in this country 
and ask the American taxpayers to subsidize 5 cents a gallon in Iraq 
while we pay north of 2 bucks a gallon here in the United States, while 
we say to our children, you should graduate college with a $16,000 bill 
and yet provide universal health care and higher education to Iraqis. 
We can do better; we need to do better.

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