[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 27033-27039]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THE WAR IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Hodes) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. HODES. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to be here tonight to talk 
about a number of issues that are of grave importance to this Congress 
and to the people of this country. I will be joined by some of my 
colleagues tonight who represent districts all over this country.
  We are going to talk about a number of things tonight. We are going 
to talk about fiscal responsibility, which means money. It means we are 
going to talk a little bit about how in this Democratic majority 
Congress we have now taken a new responsible approach to spending the 
taxpayers' hard-earned tax dollars, because that is one of the main 
reasons that the taxpayers of this country sent a new Democratic 
majority to Congress, because they saw what had happened under previous 
Congresses. They saw that the Congress had engaged in borrow-and-spend 
policies that had left us with huge deficits, where before we had big 
surpluses, now we were running out of balance. And everybody knew that 
they couldn't run their businesses that way. They couldn't run their 
homes that way. And so they sent us to Congress to make a change about 
what we were going to do.
  We are also going to move to talk about health care. We are going to 
talk about health care for kids because that is an issue that is very, 
very current. The President has vetoed a fiscally responsible, that 
means responsible with the money of the taxpayers, bill that would 
provide health care for the neediest kid in the country. He has vetoed 
that legislation. He said he doesn't want to have health care for our 
kids by vetoing that legislation.
  We are going to be coming up for a vote in not too long about that. 
So we are going to talk about what it means for kids and for health 
care, and we are also going to sort of compare that to what is going on 
with the spending on the war in Iraq because the President and his 
administration have come and said they want to spend $191 billion more 
this year on the war in Iraq but they don't want to spend $35 billion 
to insure our kids.
  I will just talk briefly now, and I have got a chart up, that shows 
you where we were when we started this Congress, what had happened with 
the mess. It is an example of what we were sent to fix, because this 
chart shows public borrowing by the administrations and the annual 
average of what we had to borrow to run our government. What you can 
see is where we came in to Congress. What we saw was, if you take a 
look down here in the lower corner, we started with President Carter. 
That little blue line shows that we were borrowing about $50 billion. 
Then you can see what happened under Presidents Reagan and Bush. Then 
you can see over here that under President Clinton we were able to 
handle the taxpayers' money in a responsible way. In fact, President 
Clinton, who was a Democrat, handled money so responsibly for the 
taxpayers of this country that when he left office in the year 2000 we 
were looking at budget surpluses over the next 10 years in the 
trillions of dollars. But when the Republicans took control, when 
President Bush came in, in 2000, he turned that upside down and topsy-
turvy, and what we were left with coming into this Congress was the 
fact that President Bush was borrowing about $300 billion during his 
first 6 years. He had turned surpluses upside down into huge deficits 
that left us in the hole as far as the eye could see.
  That is what we came in with. We came in with that, and we had to 
restore fiscal responsibility. Now, ``fiscal'' is a big word. It just 
means being responsible with the hard-earned money that the taxpayers 
of this country send to Washington so that an effective government 
honors local control but is able to get the projects done and run the 
programs that the people of this country expect. They expect us to be 
stewards of the public trust. By that, I mean they expect us to be 
honest about how we are spending their money. They expect us to use 
their money wisely. They expect us, just like they do at home and in 
their businesses, to balance things out and not spend more than we take 
in. And they want to make sure that we are spending their money wisely.
  So what we did in very short order, and then I will throw it over to 
my good colleague from Wisconsin, was the first thing we did when we 
came into Congress was we established, reestablished, what are called 
pay-as-you-go rules. It basically means if you are going to increase 
spending over here, in order to keep the deficit from getting worse and 
making sure we are headed towards balance, we have to decrease 
something over here. So we put in these pay-as-you-go rules. Every bill 
that is covered by those rules has been a fiscally responsible thing to 
do. It means that we are using the taxpayers' money wisely as we head 
towards a balanced budget. Because the other thing we did was in the 
Democratic budget proposal, we set this country on a new track to be 
responsible about the taxpayers' money. We said we are going to 
establish a balanced budget by the year 2012. We are going to do that 
with the pay-as-you-go rules and making sure that we are restraining 
Federal spending, that even as we shift priorities towards health care 
for kids, health care for our veterans, benefits for our wounded 
warriors, with the greatest rise in spending in veterans' benefits in 
the 77 years of the Veterans Administration, even while we are spending 
money on competitiveness, we are headed towards a balanced budget with 
pay-as-you-go rules because we understand that it is not our money. It 
is the taxpayers' money. Our job is to spend it wisely and to spend it 
in a balanced way. We also got rid of something called ``fast 
tracking'' in order to make sure that our spending was responsible.
  Now, with that as a framework, one of the things we are still facing 
are huge costs for the war in Iraq. As I said earlier on, the President 
and the administration has now come and said they want $191 billion 
more this year for the war in Iraq. We have had a bill that would help 
insure our kids that would cost about $35 billion. So really, we are 
faced with a choice in this country. Are we, and are my colleagues 
across the aisle who are supporting the President, going to decide that 
it is not worth the investment to invest $35 billion over 5 years in 
health care for kids, but it is worth the money to invest $191 billion 
in the war in Iraq? Is that the kind of choice we, as a country, are 
going to make? Is that something that is sound policy? Does it make 
sense for our kids? Does it make sense for health care? Does it make 
sense for the taxpayers? Does it make sense for the country? Those are 
the kinds of questions that we have to answer.
  Now, I would like to turn it over to my good friend from Wisconsin, 
Dr. Steve Kagen, a man who understands what health care is about, who 
has been in the trenches helping kids get well, helping families stay 
healthy. He understands things about children's health care. I am going 
to turn it over to you, my good friend from Wisconsin, Dr. Steve Kagen.
  Mr. KAGEN. Thank you for yielding, Congressman Hodes. It is an 
extreme pleasure for me to be with you this evening and with our 
Speaker Braley

[[Page 27034]]

from Iowa. The American people have been posed a number of questions by 
you this evening. I think the most important question was posed to our 
generation many years ago by Bobby Kennedy on the evening of the 
assassination of Martin Luther King when he asked the country this 
question: What kind of Nation are we? And which direction shall we 
turn?
  We were confronted several days ago with a Presidential veto of 
children's health care called SCHIP. The State Children Health 
Insurance Plan, SCHIP, saves lives. SCHIP saves lives for children and 
for pregnant mothers. We have to do all we can to guarantee access to 
affordable care for everyone in our country. But first and foremost, 
what kind of Nation are we if we don't care for our children?
  I have here a placard that gives us the SCHIP facts. People may have 
heard a number of things in the last several days about SCHIP, but 
these are the facts. SCHIP is a State-run private program. The States 
get grant money from the Federal Government to run their own programs. 
It focuses on the poorest working families in America, families that 
earn just above what would qualify for welfare or Medicaid health care 
coverage. It also provides $3.50 cost per child per day. Now, if you 
want to compare what you can do with your hard-earned tax dollars, you 
can invest $3.50 of your hard-earned tax money into the health care for 
children who need it most, and on 1 day we are currently spending $330 
million to $400 million a day in the sands of Iraq.
  Now, where I come from in northeast Wisconsin people are asking me 
this question: ``Doc, how can I get my country back? I want my country 
back.'' We need to create jobs here in America, not overseas. SCHIP 
fact Number 4, who is eligible? The poorest working people in America. 
People that are three times the Federal poverty rate, which is just 
under $58,000, $59,000 per year. Also, who is it going to cover? It is 
going to cover 10 million, 10.8 million, we hope, children who need 
access to their pediatricians, children who require their family 
practitioner to guide them and make them healthy.
  If our children are not healthy, they can't learn in school. If they 
are unable to learn in school and progress with their education, what 
kind of future do they have? Our children, after all, are our own 
future. Our future depends on the good health of our children.
  So these are the SCHIP facts that we are going to be taking about in 
the next several days. You will see more and more Congressmen and 
Congresswomen talking about health care for children. But I haven't 
seen in my medical practice over 30 years a single child in my 
examination room without a mother, a father, or a caregiver.
  So we have to begin to broaden this discussion not just about 
children's health care, but access to health care for every citizen 
everywhere in these United States. So SCHIP is a proven program. I hold 
it against no one that it started out as a Republican program. It is a 
Republican-inspired private program administered by States with moneys 
appropriated through the Federal Government. It focuses on working 
families, the poorest among us, and focuses on putting children first.
  It only involves U.S. citizens. If you are not a citizen, you are not 
a legal resident, you are not going to get these benefits that come 
with it. It is a private, private-run plan, private doctors, private 
health care plans, and children up to 19 years of age can be covered.
  This is a program that works for kids. In my view, in the view of 
most people living throughout the United States and especially 
northeast Wisconsin, the President was being morally unresponsible. It 
is morally unacceptable to say ``no'' to our children.
  I yield back my time for a few moments, to my good colleague from New 
Hampshire as we talk more about health care and its relationship to 
Iraq. Because the way I look at it, Iraq is a health care issue. They 
are using real bullets, real people are being killed, about 700,000 
Iraqi civilians are dead, and they are not coming back. Thousands of 
our soldiers have given everything, have given their lives as they have 
served with courage, with honor and with incredible skill. We have done 
our job in Iraq. We have taken down Saddam. We have done everything the 
Iraqi Parliament needed us to do for them to help them in their 
religious civil war.

                              {time}  2045

  Mr. HODES. Well, it is really an important point to underscore, and I 
appreciate your saying it, which we all agree, that there is nobody on 
whatever side of the debate you're in about Iraq who doesn't understand 
that our troops have served with extraordinary bravery and courage. 
They have performed. It is really up to the policymakers. It is up to 
the administration, who makes the policy. It is up to Congress, who 
makes the policy, the Senate. It is up to the policymakers, who send 
our military to do the job to make the right judgments and right 
decisions about when they should be sent, under what conditions they 
ought to be sent, and what their mission is.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the real sad failings is that the mission here 
has changed so many times, nobody knows what it is anymore. Seventy 
percent of the American people now understand that whatever it is that 
we have tried to do in Iraq hasn't worked. The Iraqi Government has not 
stood up. We have spent lives, our brave troops have given their lives, 
thousands and thousands of wounded, at a huge cost, because so far we 
have spent about half a trillion dollars in direct costs for the war in 
Iraq. Half a trillion dollars. That has got so many zeroes that I 
really have trouble figuring out and contemplating wrapping my brain 
around what half a trillion dollars is. That is $500 billion.
  That is an awful lot of money to experience what we have experienced 
in Iraq, because it's clear now that the war hasn't made us safer and 
more secure. It's clear that, unfortunately, al Qaeda and the Taliban 
are still strong and resurgent in the Pakistan-Afghanistan area, and 
still threatening to us. The region is more unstable.
  Mr. Speaker, it is clear we need a new course. But we don't often 
talk about the costs, because it is not just the $500 billion or half a 
trillion dollars we have spent in direct costs in Iraq, but we are 
facing $1 trillion-plus in total costs for the care of all those who 
have served in Iraq, who are going to come home and need care on an 
ongoing basis as we go forward. And the costs in lost productivity to 
society are huge.
  When you think about the comparison of the costs between what we have 
spent in Iraq and what we could spend that money on in terms of 
providing health care for our kids, as this Democratic Congress in a 
bipartisan way has proposed, because the SCHIP bill that we sent to the 
President was a bipartisan bill, we passed a bill in the House and then 
we sent it over to the Senate. They compromised. We worked with the 
Senate and we compromised on the bill. The Senate had some different 
ideas. They sort of reduced things in some areas and sent it back to 
us. We then sent this compromise bill to the President.
  But even though it was a compromise bill, and even though it was 
supported by 45 Republicans in the House and numbers of Senators on the 
Republican side in the Senate, and I can talk about some of what they 
said later on, the President decided that $35 billion was too much to 
spend on our kids. He decided that $35 billion over 5 years for kids' 
health care wasn't worth the investment; that $35 billion for American 
kids who needed health care, American kids at the lowest income levels, 
struggling families trying to make ends meet, was not something that 
the President of the United States was willing to invest our money in. 
This, despite the fact that in previous speeches he had promised that 
he was going to cover millions of new kids for health care. But for 
some reason, when the Democratic-controlled Congress sent it to the 
President, he decided that it was too much. He also decided that he 
could ask us for $191 billion more for a failed policy in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, here is how it breaks down. Here are the facts. Here are 
the figures. They are shown on this chart that I have.
  What this shows is that 37 days in Iraq would pay for 10 million 
children

[[Page 27035]]

to have health care every year. It shows 37 days in Iraq, 10 million 
kids with health care. One day in Iraq is costing us $330 million. That 
money, $330 million in the SCHIP program, would cover more than 270,000 
kids. Just stop for a minute and think about those numbers.
  Dr. Kagen, I don't know about you, but where I come from, $330 
million is a significant amount of money. That is what we are spending 
every day in Iraq. It would cover more than a quarter of a million kids 
for a year of health care. When you get into a week in Iraq, we are 
spending $2.3 billion, that is billion dollars, $2.3 billion every 
week, and that amount of money, if we spent it on SCHIP, would cover 
1,891,000 kids. That is a huge number of kids, for 1 week of Iraq war 
spending. And it is hard to say we are spending our money wisely in 
Iraq.
  Let me just tell you a little bit about a hearing that I was on. I 
have the privilege of sitting on the Oversight and Government Reform 
Committee, and one of the issues we took up in the past couple of weeks 
was the issue of the cost of corruption in Iraq.
  Now, the Middle East has always been a difficult place when it comes 
to how governments spend money, how they account or don't account to 
their citizens, what kind of accounting practices they have, and the 
issue of corruption has traditionally been one that throughout the 
Middle East has been a significant problem. So you would think, for 
instance, that maybe in Iraq, now that we are there in such strength, 
we have 160,000 of our troops fighting there, we have support 
personnel, we have a huge number of contractors, another bit of a 
problem that we ran into. But with all these contractors and all these 
people and all the American money and all the oversight and all the 
planning, you would think that maybe after 5 years of the Iraq 
occupation we would be in a position to do something about the 
corruption in Iraq, to make sure that money was being spent wisely, 
because if you are going to spend $2.3 billion in one week in Iraq, 
which otherwise would cover almost 2 million kids for health care for 1 
year, you want to make sure that it is going to be spent well. You 
would think you would want to make sure.
  So at this oversight hearing we had on October 4, we had the chief 
judge from Iraq who was dealing with corruption and accountability 
under the new al Maliki government that we have supported come to our 
hearing. By the way, he is no longer in Iraq, because he fears for his 
life. So not only is there a problem on the money side, but there is a 
problem when people try to do something about it. He now fears for his 
life, so he is over in this country, and he came to testify. His name 
is Radhi Hamza al Radhi, former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public 
Integrity.
  He took the oath, and testified as follows. He told us that the 
corruption within the Iraqi Government has cost the Iraqi people $18 
billion. So instead of its original purpose, infrastructure, new 
hospitals, electricity, things that the people need, he told us the 
money is now being used to finance terrorist militias in Iraq.
  Also of note with this government of al Maliki that we are 
supporting, what the judge said was, when we asked him, why are you 
here and what happened when you tried to do something about the 
corruption? What he said was, well, I tried to investigate many cases 
of corruption within the government of Iraq and with Iraqi officials. 
It was my job. I was set up. I was supposed to coordinate with the 
Americans who were overseeing the corruption and coordinate with the 
Iraqis who were overseeing the corruption. My job was to investigate 
corruption.
  But he ran into a bit of a roadblock. You know what he told us the 
roadblock was? The roadblock, for example, was Prime Minister Maliki 
himself, who blocked his attempts to uncover the truth and to deal with 
corruption. Why did he do it? He did it because the people that the 
judge was investigating were Shia, so the Prime Minister didn't want 
those people investigated, or because they were related in some way to 
the Prime Minister, so those people couldn't be investigated.
  So with the money we have poured into Iraq, the money we have poured 
in for reconstruction and other things, the Iraqi Government is missing 
$18 billion worth in corruption. That is what we are dealing with in 
Iraq. That is where our money is going. And instead of covering our 
kids for health care, we want to spend another $191 billion more in 
Iraq.
  Dr. Kagen?
  Mr. KAGEN. Thank you for yielding. One of the nice things about being 
in the majority is we have an opportunity now to have oversight, to ask 
questions seeking the truth about where our hard-earned tax dollars are 
being spent.
  I have always believed and I believe everyone in Wisconsin believes 
that your family values are reflected in how and where you spend your 
money. The values of this administration, of this President, will be 
reflected in how and where he is attempting to direct us to spend our 
hard-earned dollars.
  We have heard from you, Congressman Hodes, the voice of the 
administrator from the new Iraq, the freely elected government of Iraq. 
I would like to share with you now some of the words of people from my 
district who have concerns about money and their health and where we 
are going.
  Albert from Crivitz writes, ``Without a job that pays a fair wage, I 
won't have money to pay for health care, gas, a war, Social Security or 
anything else.''
  Albert in Crivitz understands. He has to balance his checkbook every 
month and he can't spend money that he doesn't have.
  Lloyd in Wisconsin, who I spoke with this evening before coming down 
to the floor, he is from Kaukauna, said, ``Do something to help your 
senior citizens for health care and drug programs. Thank you.''
  When I spoke with him this evening, he went beyond his postcard to me 
to explain that he has two daughters who are retarded who are dependent 
upon him. And even though he is trying to retire, he is a retired paper 
worker in the paper industry and his wife has diabetes, he is having a 
hard time making it. And without the role of government, what kind of 
future would he and his daughters have?
  From Waupaca, Dianne writes to me, ``We know numerous people over 50 
who have lost their jobs so companies can cut health care and payroll 
costs, and cannot find any other work and no longer have health 
insurance.'' No health insurance for 4 years.
  In speaking with Dianne's husband this evening, Ken, he explained 
that his son is shipping out on the 26th of this month to Iraq as a 
member of the Guard. He is a gunner on a Humvee. He is a college 
graduate, and he is making a sacrifice.
  No one in this administration has asked the American people to 
sacrifice for this poor judgment of entering into the Iraqi civil war. 
But who is he really asking to pay the price? He is asking us to forgo 
health care for the poorest among us and for our Nation's children who 
are near poverty. That is a poor choice. It is poor judgment that got 
us into Iraq. But we have to stand up in this House, in this, the 
People's House, expressing citizens' points of view. It is their money, 
and that is who we represent.
  From Appleton, Wisconsin, my hometown, Leroy and Lois: ``We are 
retired, over 80. We need drugs for high cholesterol, but the cost for 
this drug is extremely high. Also it would be great to have some 
alternative auto fuel.''
  These people in Appleton really get it. And they are listening 
tonight. I called them to tune in on C-SPAN, because we are expressing 
their views here this evening.
  From Fremont, Wisconsin, Larry writes, ``My wife and I spend over 
$900 a month for drugs now. When we hit the doughnut hole, that is when 
we really will pay.'' In speaking with him tonight, his wife is in the 
doughnut hole. That is over a $2,400 hole, and their copay is $600 for 
their medications.
  We have some values that we have to reflect here in the People's 
House. Where are we going to spend the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars--
overseas, or here at home?

[[Page 27036]]



                              {time}  2100

  Bonnie from Biron, Wisconsin, writes, ``We need to start worrying 
about the people of U.S.A. before we worry about others in the world.''
  Robert from Green Bay, ``Iraq, bringing them home. If taxpayers can't 
get the same health insurance as Congress, at least get drug costs down 
to the VA amounts.''
  My friend, people in Wisconsin understand the deal they are being 
handed. My honorable friend, Congressman Hodes, you point to a chart 
that shows $330 million a day being spent in Iraq. I can build 10 brand 
new hospitals in Wisconsin with that amount of money. Each and every 
day, 10 hospitals in your State, Texas, California, Missouri, 
everywhere in these United States and that money is gone and it is not 
coming back.
  Mr. HODES. As I hear the stories that you are telling me from the 
folks back home in your district in Wisconsin, it literally breaks my 
heart to think, as a Member of Congress, we are having to fight, we are 
having to fight hard for the people of this country to override a 
Presidential veto which says we are going to spend money on a failed 
war instead of spending money on health care for our people. Health 
care for our people. We would rather spend the money over there on 
something that isn't working. But questioning whether or not we are 
being wise about making a basic investment in the health care for kids 
with a program that has worked well to help lift kids out of poverty 
and into health, because when kids are healthy, they can learn. When 
the kids are learning and productive, their families are working 
better. Those are the kinds of things that the American people expect 
us to be spending our money on.
  They are asking those questions. Why are we spending so much money in 
the sands of Iraq and with so little to show for it and why aren't we 
investing for kids at home. And they may not even know where all that 
money is going because the numbers are so big; $191 billion, what does 
that mean to anybody? When I carry around a $10 bill in my wallet, I 
can handle those sums. But $191 billion, what is it going for? What is 
it paying for? What kind of value are the taxpayers getting for what 
they are spending?
  Mr. KAGEN. That brings up a good point that Linda DePere writes, ``I 
do not want the government involved in health care. The government 
mismanages money and thinks funds are endless.''
  We agree with Linda, but we also believe in good government. And I 
believe good government can make a real difference in people's lives. 
That's why I left my medical practice to come to Congress to speak up 
for people who can't pay for their prescriptions.
  Mr. HODES. It is a fair thing for the American people to expect 
competence from their government. They expect us to manage their money 
well, to manage it wisely, to be smart and be prudent and to be 
basically competent. That is one of the things that an effective 
government does.
  When you think about some of the ways that our government has 
unfortunately mismanaged the effort in Iraq, the imagination cannot 
even keep up with what kinds of things have gone on.
  Here are a couple of things. We know that the Bush administration has 
tragically mismanaged the war. The money we have spent on contracting 
has just been like throwing it out the window because we have had 
contracts upon contracts and subcontracts, nobody knows where the money 
has gone. Somebody is making a lot of money in Iraq. It was a free-for-
all from the beginning with no-bid contracts, contractors piled on top 
of each other, and millions and billions of dollars.
  We heard in one of our hearings in the Oversight Committee how we 
shipped $12 billion in cash over to Iraq during the early days of the 
occupation. The money was just given away to the ministries in Iraq and 
spent without any kind of accountability. And there have been how many 
prosecutions for war profiteering? Very few.
  Luckily, our Congress in the past few days has enacted the War 
Profiteering Act, and we hope that will mean some real accountability. 
But there are billions unaccounted for. We have spent more than $50 
billion on U.S. contractors for relief and reconstruction activities in 
Iraq alone; yet we heard in our hearings how these contractors who were 
being paid millions and billions of dollars weren't getting the jobs 
done. Things were left unfinished. The money was being wasted, and with 
all that, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction had a 
report recently. He said that the Coalition Provisional Authority in 
Iraq, that was the government that we set up under Mr. Bremer, who is a 
good friend of the President, we set up this Coalition Provisional 
Authority. He said, I am the ruler of everything, I'm running the show. 
He ran the show. They can't account for $8.8 billion. I will say it 
again: They can't account for $8.8 billion.
  If you look at what that involves, that is about the money to insure 
over 8 million kids under SCHIP, $8.8 billion. That is about the 
equivalent that it means. Gone, unaccounted for, can't figure it out. 
That is not competent management.
  Take the issue of Blackwater that we have dealt with in hearings the 
other day. We found out that this company, Blackwater, which is 
providing security in Iraq and which now is under question for a 
terrible incident in which many Iraq civilians seem to have been gunned 
down, it is now being investigated by the FBI. Well, Blackwater is 
charging the government $1,222 a day for the services of a private 
military contractor. Each person they have got, $1,222 a day. That is 
$445,000 a year for each of these security guards, and that is over six 
times what we pay an equivalent U.S. soldier.
  When we heard that during the hearing, we sat there stunned. We 
scratched our heads. We brought in the State Department and asked them 
what they knew about it. They couldn't give us any good answers. They 
were being guarded by these guys at these exorbitant costs, but they 
were not willing to talk to us. They weren't able to talk to us and 
couldn't give us any answers. We wanted to know why shouldn't we have 
U.S. soldiers perform these duties at a much lower cost.
  Now, one of the things that we expect from our government is 
competent management. We certainly haven't gotten it in this effort in 
Iraq, and we want to make sure that our kids are covered. We have 
incompetent management in Iraq, or are we going to cover our kids. 
Those are the kinds of choices that we are facing. They are pretty 
basic choices.
  Mr. KAGEN. Being a songwriter and a singer yourself, I understand, 
you remember the song, ``There's a Hole in the Bucket.'' Well, when we 
came to Congress, we discovered there is a hole in the bucket. We feel, 
and I will just speak on behalf of myself, I feel just as frustrated as 
everyone back home that change can't happen fast enough, that we can't 
plug the leaks as fast as humanly possible.
  We have not got the ability. I wasn't elected President; I was 
elected to be one of the 435 Members of Congress who express the 
people's view. We are not the administrators. Our job is to do 
oversight, to legislate, and to fund those things and place our values 
on the table and put our money where we believe the people best want it 
spent.
  And people watching have to ask themselves: Whose side are we on? Are 
we on the side of large insurance companies? Are we on the side of no-
bid contractors?
  I am a Democrat. I am not on their side. I don't sit in the 
boardrooms. I sit and stand with you on the House floor speaking their 
voice.
  All these issues come together. You cannot solve our situation in 
Iraq and health care and education and our environment and the safety 
and security of this Nation without talking about how we are going to 
spend our hard-earned money. It always requires money, and that's 
obvious. It is simple. Money is a problem solver. If you have a 
problem, you throw money at it and the problem should go away. Well, we 
are throwing money into Iraq and the problem isn't going away.
  Here are the words from Tom and Sue from New London: ``Number one,

[[Page 27037]]

51 million people without health care is a disgrace. Number two, the 
war in Iraq is like Vietnam all over. Number three, outsourcing is 
unacceptable and morally wrong.'' Tom and Sue from New London 
understand. There is a connection between outsourcing by hiring people 
offshore, lower wages, lower tax base that we don't have the money to 
solve our problems here at home.
  Vicki from Green Bay writes, ``Better medical care for poor 
seniors.''
  Well, SCHIP is not focused at seniors. It is focused first at our 
children who are most at risk, those with lower-income families. Those 
are the people I think we have to focus on first, and never think for a 
moment we are going to neglect our seniors, our military veterans and 
active military people who have served and put their lives on the line. 
They covered our back. It is time we cover theirs as well.
  This is Kathleen from DePere: ``It is time for all Americans to have 
the same health care benefits as their representatives in Washington.''
  Well, Kathleen, you don't want my coverage because I respectfully 
declined the health care benefits here until everyone in my district 
and the State and the country is offered the same cafeteria menu of 
choices. I felt it was wrong.
  Deb from Little Chute in my district. ``I want to see lower drug 
prices for everyone, not just seniors.''
  People back home get it, Congressman Hodes. It is not just about 
kids, but we have to start somewhere. If we can't stand up and say--
what kind of Nation are we, that we would turn our back on those most 
in need, children from hardworking families, what kind of Nation are 
we? It is morally unacceptable for the President to have vetoed this 
bill. This bill is paid for, and it is paid for in a responsible 
manner. It is a good deal for the American taxpayer. It is a great deal 
for our future to invest in our children's care.
  Mr. HODES. It is extraordinary to stand on the floor of the House of 
Representatives and have the privilege of representing hardworking 
families in this country who get it. I believe the people of this 
country know in their hearts that our kids are important. The kids are 
not Democrats or Republicans; they are American kids. That is why the 
SCHIP bill is a bill about American kids. It is not a partisan bill. In 
fact, it had enormous bipartisan support. That's why 45 Members of the 
House of Representatives who are Republicans supported the bill. That's 
why it was supported in the Senate by so many Republican Senators.
  Some of the things that were said by Republicans about the SCHIP 
children's health care bill which our President has now vetoed and 
which we are trying to override so we can bring health care to the most 
needy American kids, so we can make the investment that the American 
people understand is the moral thing to do, the smart thing to do with 
money, the smart thing to do for our future, they understand our kids 
are our future. Here is what some Republicans have said about that 
bill.
  Representative Rehberg from Montana said: ``I think it is a sensible, 
reasonable compromise.'' Sounds right to me. He said that on September 
25.
  Representative Thomas Petri, a Republican from Wisconsin, said: ``A 
lot of hard work has been put into this bill, including the successful 
efforts of Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, 
both good Republicans and conservatives. So,'' he said, ``I am 
comfortable that this bill is the right compromise, that it will 
provide much-needed health insurance for the Nation's low-income 
children, and do it at a reasonable cost.'' He said that in the 
Northwestern in Wisconsin, a paper, on September 25 of 2007, this year.
  Representative Wayne Gilchrest, a Republican from Maryland, says, 
``This is a compromise version of the bill which has the support of a 
broad coalition of groups. It focuses on the lowest-income kids, and 
fixes a lot of problems with the current programs.''
  Now, these aren't the words of Democrats. These aren't the words of 
people who some folks might even dismiss as liberals. You know, when 
you use the word ``liberals,'' just trying to spend people's money, 
they say.

                              {time}  2115

  These are the words of my Republican colleagues who sit here day 
after day and have come together in a bipartisan coalition, in a 
bipartisan way, as good Americans to send the President a reasonable 
compromise that represents the best thinking, the best work that we 
could produce to cover our kids. Because the children's health care 
bill that we sent the President is not only good health care for kids, 
it's good health care, period. And it's done in a responsible way 
because what we did was we said we'll spend $35 billion over 5 years, 
we'll fix some of the problems with the current program, we'll not only 
insure the 6 million kids who are now the beneficiaries of this SCHIP 
program, but we'll expand it to about 3.8, almost 4 million more kids, 
but we're going to pay for every penny of that investment. How are we 
going to pay for every penny of that investment? We're going to frankly 
ask smokers to pay some more than they're paying now and use that money 
to pay for our kids.
  So there's a trade. We have health care for kids and sound health 
policy because when we have smokers, we've got secondhand smoke, we've 
got huge rates of disease. So we're going to be sound fiscally. That 
means spending the taxpayers' money wisely. We're not going to spend 
new dollars. We're going to take from over here and pay for our kids 
over here.
  So that's what we proposed, and as I said, all these Republicans, 
good, good Americans, and our colleagues here decided that it was worth 
it on a bipartisan basis, and here's what the President proposed. Here 
was the President's approach to what he wanted to do for America's 
kids.
  Under the President's budget, 840,000 of our kids will lose their 
SCHIP coverage. Eight hundred forty thousand kids under the President's 
proposal will lose their health care. That's what he wants to do, and 
what we proposed, in a bipartisan way, in this Congress, one of the 
stunning achievements of the 110th Congress was doing what the American 
people asked us to do, because one of the things I heard when I came to 
Congress was we want to see you folks get past the bickering. We want 
to see you folks get past all that gridlock in Congress. We want to see 
Republicans and Democrats come together, come together and put the 
interests of Americans first.
  And so on this bill, the kids' health bill, that's exactly what 
happened. Republicans and Democrats came together, sent it to the 
President, and said, Mr. President, this stunning example of bipartisan 
cooperation is ready for your signature, pick up the pen and help 
America's kids, Mr. President.
  And what the President did and I personally in my heart of hearts 
find it not just disappointing but disgraceful, that what he did was he 
vetoed that bill. And now we're faced with trying to bring some of our 
Republican colleagues along to help override that veto so our kids, our 
poorest kids can have health insurance.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. KAGEN. Thank you for yielding. One of the lessons I learned when 
I entered the world of politics and politicians was that it's 
politicians that determine who will live and who will die. It was, 
after all, politicians that took us to war based on lies and 
deceptions, and it's politicians today who are preventing my patients, 
my constituents and those who are most in need from having access to 
their health care that they require to survive. It's politicians that 
are very important.
  So our politicians I believe on every level, whether you're a mayor, 
an alderman, a county board person, a Governor, a President, our 
elected leaders must now, more than ever, have good judgment, and good 
judgment will yield good results.
  Now, this bill isn't just paid for with SCHIP. It saves money. 
Instead of a low-income family taking their children with a strep 
throat to the emergency room, they will get to go to a doctor, and you 
know, I can share with you a scientific fact you already know,

[[Page 27038]]

but sometimes people who point out the obvious are called geniuses. You 
know, a cataract never had a name on it like Republican or Democrat. 
Strep throat never had a name like Independent or Progressive or 
Republican. Human disease has no political affiliation. I have not 
asked my patients what political party they're in before we decide 
what's best for them. The motto is, the thematic idea is, do what is 
best for your patients if you're a physician.
  Here in Congress we have to have that same mantra, that same idea: do 
what is best for our constituents. That's our duty. That's our job, but 
we have to have good judgment.
  Now, the other thing I've discovered here, when I served in the 
Veterans Administration hospitals as a physician during my training 
days, we had a slogan that said, hey, wait a minute, if it makes sense, 
don't do it; it's the military. If you served in the Marines or the 
Army, you might have that same idea, wait a minute, if it makes sense, 
what are we doing it for?
  But we have to now make sense of our judgments, especially with 
health care for our children. They are the ones most at risk. Early in 
life, the early development of the human brain, the first 5 years of 
development are so critical to the future health and psychology of that 
person. We have to invest in our children's health care. SCHIP is not 
perfect but it is the best way forward. It just makes too much common 
sense for many people.
  I'm hoping that tonight people watching throughout America will 
understand, yeah, it does matter who my politician is, who my 
congressperson is. They should call and write their congressman and 
congresswoman today. Don't wait till tomorrow. This is far too 
important.
  This is a matter literally of life and death. It's not just your 
pocketbook. We're talking about your neighbors, the people that live 
just down the street that don't have access to care that they require.
  We can change it. I believe in good government. I know you do as 
well. I know people listening want good government. This is their 
opportunity to participate. We have shared their stories here tonight. 
It's their story, and it's their lives that we're attempting to 
improve. Their quality of life is on the line on the 18th of October.
  This President has failed to listen to ordinary people, people from 
my district who are asking for access to their doctor, who are asking 
him to take a new and different direction away from Iraq and back after 
Osama bin Laden and his followers.
  The President, who I believe is a good man, has poor judgment on this 
one, is listening to some people that are giving him bad advice. We'd 
like to work with the President.
  The third lesson I've learned: One congressperson can't make a 
tremendous change, but they don't have to give up trying. What really 
matters here in our government is who's in the White House. I'm 
convinced, now more than ever, with this recent battle over health care 
for children that makes sense, that's paid for, that saves money, saves 
tax dollars, if we can't win over this President and the Republican 
Party on this argument, they don't deserve to be in the White House for 
a generation. Their judgment is ill, spoken like a physician, and no 
joke meant.
  I cannot tell you how hard I took it when the President said ``no'' 
to our children, to our Nation's children most in need. It's the most 
unkind act, other than taking us to war based on poor judgment and 
deception.
  Mr. HODES. Well, I hear you loud and clear, and I think the American 
people do, also.
  You know, there's often a mistrust of politicians, and you and I came 
to Congress not from lives as professional politicians. You and I came 
to Congress because we saw trouble in our country. We saw priorities 
that weren't being handled right. We saw policies that weren't working 
for hardworking American people. We saw a country we loved where the 
Constitution was treated as a nuisance, where the American people 
weren't told the truth, where the real needs of hardworking folks in 
our districts, in our home States, the needs for health care, for good 
schools, for good jobs, for rational trade policies, for an end to wars 
that didn't work weren't being answered by the politicians when we ran 
for office.
  You were a doctor. I practiced law for years. I was never in the 
State legislature. I don't think you were either. We came here to do 
the most good for most of the people all of the time.
  And on this bill in particular, it is such a shame that it has become 
any kind of political football. We didn't make it that way. What we did 
on this bill was we reached across the aisle and we said to our 
Republican colleagues, come on, this is for America; we can at least 
agree on this, that we're going to get past the gridlock, we're going 
to help kids because that's what Americans are about.
  We're good, decent people who understand that our kids are our 
future, and whatever political party we're in, our kids are our future. 
We love them and we want to help them. They shouldn't be sick. The 
sight of one sick child who otherwise could have been helped with the 
SCHIP bill, who goes ill, who lies there sick because his family or her 
family can't afford to take her to the doctor because this President 
has decided that a war in Iraq is worth spending $191 billion on but 
our kids aren't worth $35 billion over 5 years is something that I 
think you and I have a hard time understanding. It has a direct impact.
  And for us as politicians here in Washington, sitting in the House of 
Representatives, it's a great privilege, great honor, great obligation 
which we take seriously, but ultimately, the way change happens in this 
country is at the grassroots. It's people around America, and there are 
probably a lot of folks who are listening to us tonight because this 
goes out all over the country, and what I'm begging the people of this 
country to do, what I'm asking is that it's up to them, Mr. Speaker. 
It's up to the people in this country to say to the President, to say 
to their representatives, whether they're Republicans or Democrats, who 
haven't voted for the SCHIP bill and who have got to vote to override 
this veto, it's up to the people of this country to step up, step 
forward, use e-mail, use mail, use the telephones. Don't let this go.
  We need the people of this country to step up and speak to their 
representatives and say this veto must not stand. It's not right for 
America. It's not who we are. It's not the moral thing. It's not the 
right thing to do monetarily. It's not the right thing for our kids, to 
send a message loud and clear to the President of the United States 
that says we're not going to stand down with you, we're going to stand 
up for our kids.
  Because if we don't do it, if the people of this country don't do it, 
if the House of Representatives, if the Congress won't stand up for 
kids, we know the President won't, who will? We have the opportunity in 
the next week or so to come to a vote, and I think it's going to come 
up to the floor of this House on Monday next week. Maybe I'm off on my 
date. It will be the 18th of October. There's going to be a vote right 
here on this floor where you and I are standing of whether or not we 
are going to override the President's veto, and I want my colleagues 
and especially those who we need on the other side of the aisle who are 
thinking about whether or not to support the President or support the 
kids to hear from the people of this country, because I'm betting, as 
sure as I'm standing here representing the good people of New 
Hampshire, I'm betting the people of this country want the President 
and the Congress to stand up for kids, not to stand down with the 
discredited President.
  That's what I'm betting. That's where I am putting my money. I'm 
putting my money on the kids, and I'm putting my money on the people of 
the United States of America. What do you think?
  Mr. KAGEN. I appreciate your sentiment, your energy, and I agree with 
everything that you have been saying, and I would ask another question 
of the American people, not just what kind of Nation are we, but this 
essential question that you will recognize. If

[[Page 27039]]

not now, when? And if not you, then who? This moment does matter.
  I am so grateful for our leadership in giving us this opportunity 
this week to have an ongoing conversation with constituents and voters 
and parents and children all across the country. We need to have a 
discussion about what kind of Nation we are and in which direction 
we're going to turn, shall we invest in the health of our children, 
those who are most in need, or shall we be unkind and immoral and turn 
away from them? I think most people would agree with us, that it's a 
great idea to be healthy and especially to invest in the health of our 
children.

                              {time}  2130

  In the State of Wisconsin, the SCHIP program under BadgerCare, what 
we call BadgerCare, 16,527 children are covered. We can enhance with 
this bill up to 37,000 additional children who have access to health 
care. My friends, if not now, when? And if not you, then who? You must 
contact your representative to make sure that he or she is speaking the 
way you want them to speak.
  We have been listening to you all throughout our election and all 
throughout our careers, we will continue. Because a politician is 
someone who is looking forward to their next election. We are statesmen 
looking out for our next generation.
  Mr. HODES. You know, in my home State, the bill would preserve care 
for 11,000-plus children, and we could add 8,000 children with our 
bill. I think, as we have talked tonight with each other and with the 
American people about what this means for our children, it is clear, 
certainly, that you and I are here listening to the American people, 
trying to do the best we can for hardworking families and our kids.
  There is nothing as simple. It's a pretty simple proposition we face. 
Are we going to stand up for our kids, or stand down with a discredited 
President, and we both said that we need the American people to speak 
loud and clear, because we are two voices among many. But the American 
people can speak on this issue with a solid unified voice, send a 
message to Congress, send a message to the President, that we will 
stand up together for our kids. It's the least we can do. It's the best 
we can do. Together, we can make a difference for the kids of this 
country.
  Mr. KAGEN. By working together, we will.
  Mr. HODES. Thank you for having a great evening and a great chance to 
talk together on this important issue.

                          ____________________