[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 22986-22987]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  0915
                      INTRANSIGENCE CAUSES TRAGEDY

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, listeners should know that, unfortunately, 
truthfulness is not required on the floor of the House of 
Representatives under the rules.

[[Page 22987]]

  It is not truthful that somehow we are extending benefits to illegal 
aliens. That is against the law of the United States. It is statute.
  It is not truthful that we have enacted the largest tax increase in 
history. That is the attitude that brought about the bridge collapse in 
Minnesota. President Bush told us we couldn't have a penny more to 
invest in the infrastructure of this country, even though we knew the 
bridges were crumbling. The Democrats had a list of all the 
insufficient bridges in the country. But the President said, no, we 
can't afford it. Not a penny more.
  Do you know what it would cost to catch up with our bridge problem 
over the next 20 years? We would have to invest a lot of money, an 
incredible amount of money. Two weeks in Iraq every year is what it 
would take to fix the bridge problem in the United States of America.
  Mr. Speaker, the Republicans are stonewalling us on a reasonable plan 
to get out of Iraq, and they are stonewalling us on more money to fix 
our infrastructure problems. People are dying in Iraq, and they are 
dying in America because of their intransigence.

                          ____________________