[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 10145-10152]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 ECONOMIC OBSERVATIONS BY THE 43 MEMBER STRONG, FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE 
                     DEMOCRATIC BLUE DOG COALITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy of Connecticut). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from 
Arkansas (Mr. Ross) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
majority leader.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, this evening, as most Tuesday evenings, I rise 
on behalf of the 43 member strong, fiscally conservative Democratic 
Blue Dog Coalition. We are a group of Democrats that believe in 
restoring common sense, fiscal discipline and accountability to our 
Nation's government.
  As you walk the Halls of Congress, Mr. Speaker, it is easy to know 
when you are walking by the office of a member of the fiscally 
conservative, Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, because you will see this 
poster in the hallway as not only a welcome mat to that Blue Dog 
member's office, but to remind Members of Congress and the American 
people on a daily basis that our country is in a fiscal mess.
  In fact, today, the U.S. national debt is $8,827,851,749,695, and I 
ran out of room, Mr. Speaker, but you could add a quarter on to that, 
25 cents. You divide that enormous number by every man, woman and child 
in America, and every one of us, our share of the national debt is 
$29,262. It is what I commonly refer to as the debt tax, D-E-B-T tax, 
which is one tax that cannot go away until we get our Nation's fiscal 
house in order.
  The Federal deficit is something we don't have to have, Mr. Speaker. 
In fact, from 1998 through 2001 our Nation enjoyed a surplus. We had a 
balanced

[[Page 10146]]

budget. We lived within our means. That was under President Clinton. He 
was the first Democrat or Republican to give us a balanced budget in 
some 30 or 40 years. And the economy was doing pretty good when there 
was no deficit and when we had a balanced budget.
  We all remember those days, how the stock market performed. People 
had good-paying jobs with good benefits. Many of those jobs today have 
been shifted to places like China and Mexico and India. It is true that 
most of the folks have gone on and found other work, but if you really 
research it and look at it, they have found lesser-paying jobs with 
lesser benefits or, in many cases, no benefits at all.
  In fact, this is Cover the Uninsured Week, Mr. Speaker. Forty-eight 
million people in America are without health insurance tonight. Who are 
they? It is not the people that can't work or don't want to work. They 
qualify for Medicaid, which is health insurance for the poor, disabled, 
and elderly. It is not our seniors. They are provided coverage through 
Medicare, which is the only health insurance plan most seniors have to 
stay healthy and get well.
  So who are these 48 million people? It is the folks in this country, 
working families, Mr. Speaker, that are trying to do the right thing 
and stay off welfare, but they are working the jobs with no benefits. 
Ten million of them are children. One in five children will go to bed 
tonight in America hungry. Ten million will go to bed tonight without 
health insurance. This is America, and I believe that we have a duty 
and an obligation to find a way to ensure that health care is 
affordable, available and accessible for all of God's children and for 
all of us here in America.
  As long as we have got this type of debt and this type of deficit, it 
is going to be difficult to meet that challenge, as well as others.
  The total national debt from 1789 to 2000 was $5.67 trillion; but by 
2010, under this administration, the total national debt will have 
increased to $10.88 trillion. Mr. Speaker, that is a doubling of the 
211-year debt in just 10 years. In just one decade.
  Interest payments on this debt are one of the fastest growing parts 
of the Federal budget. In fact, Mr. Speaker, we will spend more of your 
tax money this year paying interest on the national debt than we will 
spend on educating our children, providing health care and other 
benefits to our veterans, and, yes, we will spend more money paying 
interest on the national debt this year than we will spend protecting 
our homeland through the Department of Homeland Security.
  So many of America's priorities are going unmet. Why? Because this 
town and this Congress and this administration for the past 6 years 
have given us record deficit after record deficit, record debt after 
record debt, to the extent that today, today our Nation is borrowing 
about $1 billion a day. But what is even more alarming than that is 
before we borrow $1 billion today, we will spend half a billion dollars 
paying interest on the debt we already have.

                              {time}  2130

  I represent a very rural district in south Arkansas, in the western 
half of Arkansas. Half of the 29 counties I represent, nearly half of 
them, are located in what is referred to as the Delta region of this 
country, one of the poorest regions of America.
  We have hope in that area by investing in alternative renewable fuels 
like ethanol by biodiesel, creating new jobs for our working families 
and new markets for our farm families and our landowners through 
cellulosic ethanol, taking the slash, the treetops and the limbs, what 
is left down in the woods and giving it a value and finding a use for 
that.
  Another way for us to accomplish those things, our government must 
invest in research and development for cellulosic ethanol. Our 
government must invest more in research and development for alternative 
and renewable fuels. The real tragedy is that we will send the Iraqis 
more money in the next 8 hours than we will spend on research and 
development for alternative renewable fuels in the next 365 days. That 
is one example of why the deficit and the debt do matter.
  A half a billion dollars a day going to pay interest on the national 
debt. We could build 200 brand-new elementary schools every single day 
in America just on the interest that we are paying on the national 
debt. In southeast Arkansas, we have great hope in Interstate 69, an 
interstate under construction, sort of. It was announced in 
Indianapolis 5 years before I was born, that was 50 years ago, and with 
the exception of 40 miles in Kentucky and a stretch just south of 
Memphis, none of it has been built south of Indianapolis in 50 years, 
and yet we have great hope that this road can create jobs and economic 
opportunities for the people in the Delta region. We need $1.5 billion 
to finish it.
  For a country boy from Prescott and Emmet and Hope, Arkansas, I can 
tell you that is a staggering amount. But when you look at it this way, 
we will spend more money paying interest on the national debt in the 
next 3 days than what it would take to build Interstate 69.
  On the western side of my district, there is great hope for 
Interstate 49. We need about $2 billion to finish it, again a 
staggering number until you look at it this way: We will spend more 
money in the next 4 days paying interest on the national debt than what 
it would take to complete Interstate 49, which would provide the first 
and only interstate quarter through the middle of the United States of 
America.
  So until this Congress starts standing up to this administration and 
saying ``no'' to these irresponsible budgets, America's priorities will 
continue to go unmet.
  I am proud to tell you that under this new Democratic majority, they 
are listening to the 43 of us in the fiscally conservative Democratic 
Blue Dogs. For the last 6 years, we reached out to the Republicans on 
the other side of the aisle and asked to work with them on a budget 
that made sense for the American people. We were told that they didn't 
need us.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe the American people are sick and tired of all 
of the partisan bickering that goes on in our Nation's Capital. For 
members of the Blue Dog Coalition, we don't care if it is a Republican 
or Democrat idea, we want to know if it is a commonsense idea, and does 
it make sense for the people back home who sent us here to be their 
voice.
  So the Republican leadership turned a deaf ear to us for the past 6 
years while they were in power. The American people decided to give the 
Democrats a chance at being in the majority this past November. I am 
proud to tell you that we didn't have to offer up a Blue Dog budget 
this year. Why? Because the new Democratic majority listened to the 
Blue Dogs and included our key provisions that can restore commonsense 
fiscal discipline and accountability to our government.
  So we are beginning through the budget that passed on the floor of 
this House just a few weeks ago, we are beginning to develop a path 
that over time, in fact by 2012, Mr. Speaker, can get us back to the 
days we had under President Clinton of a balanced budget in this 
country.
  Why do deficits matter? They matter because they reduce economic 
growth, they burden our children and grandchildren with liabilities. 
Again, the debt tax, D-E-B-T, is $29,262 for every man, woman and child 
in America, and they increase our reliance on foreign lenders who now 
own 40 percent of our debt.
  This President, this administration and, for the past 6 years, this 
Republican-led Congress up until January borrowed more money from 
foreign central banks and foreign investors than the previous 42 
Presidents combined. You want to talk about a risk to a national 
security, there is one for you.
  We have got a lot of active Members within the Blue Dogs who come to 
Washington and stand up and proudly proclaim that they are conservative 
Democrats with a commonsense vision for the United States. I am 
absolutely delighted to be joined this evening by

[[Page 10147]]

several of them. At this time I would yield to an active Member within 
the Blue Dog Coalition, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Salazar).
  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. Speaker, I am proud today to be joined by my 
colleagues of the Blue Dog Coalition to speak about our Nation's 
problems.
  Mr. Ross brought up the U.S. national debt now being $8.8 trillion, 
knocking on the door of $9 trillion. I remember the very first day I 
came to Congress where the actual figure was $7.54 trillion. Not even 
2\1/2\ years ago, each American's share of the national debt was 
$26,000 at that time. What a shame. Over $3,000 more in 2 years.
  Well, I am proud to join my fellow Blue Dogs today to talk about 
accountability in government and the gross negligence for taxpayer 
dollars in Washington. The Blue Dogs have been fighting for greater 
accountability in Washington for over 10 years. We have argued for a 
return to a PAYGO system or a balanced budget. We offered a 12-step 
reform plan to cure our Nation's addiction to deficit spending. We have 
argued that all earmarks should require written justification from a 
Member of Congress before being considered.
  I am proud that our current leadership has taken into account what 
the Blue Dogs are saying. The Blue Dogs advocate accountability. Let's 
consider the facts. In 2004, the Federal Government spent $25 billion 
that it cannot account for. In that same year, only 6 of 63 Pentagon 
departments were able to produce a clean audit. For 2005, the GAO 
reports that 19 of the 24 Federal agencies can't produce a clean audit 
or fully explain how they spend taxpayer dollars.
  In March of 2005, the Veterans Affairs inspector general issued a 
report calling for the agency's information systems and securities to 
be upgraded. No action was taken. And since that time, the personal 
information of millions of our Nation's veterans has been stolen.
  Several of our Federal agencies received serious red-flag disclaimers 
on their 2005 financial statements, including the Office of the 
Inspector General for the Department of Defense who wrote, ``We are 
unable to give an opinion on the fiscal year 2005 DOD financial 
statements because of the limitations on the scope of our work. Thus, 
the financial statements may be unreliable. Therefore, we are unable to 
express and we do not express an opinion on the DOD's financial 
statements.''
  Mr. Speaker, the American public deserves the honest truth. The 
Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security 
wrote, ``Unfortunately, the department made little or no progress to 
improve its financial reporting during fiscal year 2005. KPMG was 
unable to provide an opinion on the department's balance sheet.''
  The inspector general for NASA in its 2005 financial report in the 
enclosed report from independent auditors, Ernest & Young, disclaimed 
an opinion on NASA's financial statement for the fiscal year ending 
September 30, 2005. The disclaimer resulted from NASA's inability to 
provide an auditable financial statement and sufficient evidence to 
support financial statements throughout the fiscal year and at year 
end.
  Federal agencies are treating the taxpayer dollars that fund them 
like a joke, and the administration is incapable of lifting a finger to 
manage them effectively.
  I believe we need strong enforcement measures in Congress and the 
Federal Government to make it more accountable for taxpayer dollars. We 
must ensure that Congress has the tools to hold Federal agencies 
responsible for their use of taxpayer dollars.
  Mr. Speaker, American taxpayers deserve to know how Congress and this 
administration are spending their money.
  I am proud once again to join my Blue Dog colleagues to demand more 
fiscal accountability in Iraq. The Blue Dogs have a plan for fiscal 
accountability in Iraq. Our plan calls for transparency on how war 
funds are being utilized. It creates a commission to investigate how 
contracts are awarded, and it stops the use of emergency supplementals 
to fund this war. This is the first administration, Mr. Speaker, that 
has used emergency supplementals to fund a war year after year after 
year.
  The Blue Dogs also call for American resources to improve Iraq's 
ability to police themselves. The Blue Dog legislation addresses the 
glaring lack of oversight and accountability in Iraq. We make sure that 
taxpayer dollars are accounted for. Government reports have documented 
waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq. I think it is time to stop that waste. 
Congressional oversight is desperately needed. The administration must 
be held accountable for how reconstruction funds are being utilized.
  The Blue Dog proposals are commonsense proposals. They ensure 
transparency and accountability. We have already spent $437 billion in 
Iraq, according to the Congressional Research Service, and we will 
spend another $100 billion in Iraq in 2007 alone. That is over $500 
billion with virtually no oversight from Congress. We must start 
showing improvement in Iraq. Accountability leads directly to success, 
in my opinion. Iraq must begin making progress towards full 
responsibility by policing their own country. Without progress, it is a 
waste to continue U.S. investment in troops and financial resources.
  We all support our troops. We must support our troops. We will do 
everything in our power to make sure that they have the equipment that 
they need. However, we cannot continue to write a blank check to this 
administration. Until our last troop has returned home, the American 
people deserve to know how their money is being spent. Accountability 
is not only patriotic, it often determines success from failure.
  The Blue Dog proposal gives us an opportunity to regain that 
oversight and responsibility. This is the responsibility that we have 
to all of our men and women in uniform, to their parents, and to the 
American taxpayer who is footing the bill.
  The Congressional Research Service and the Congressional Budget 
Office have clearly stated that if this continues, our fiscal 
irresponsibility in Congress, if it continues by the year 2040, every 
single penny of revenue that the Federal Government receives will go 
just to fund the interest on our national debt.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to let this happen. We cannot saddle 
our children with the irresponsibilities of this administration.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman, Mr. Salazar, a member of the 
fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition for joining us this evening.
  The gentleman is absolutely correct. Every one of us, Democrat and 
Republican, we support our troops. All of the troops in harm's way 
tonight are in our prayers.
  Just this week I visited Walter Reed Army Hospital and visited a 19-
year-old corporal, John Slatton, from Delight, Arkansas. Most folks 
have never heard of Delight, Arkansas. It is a town of about 400 
people. If you are my age or older, you might remember it as the 
hometown of Glen Campbell, who was a country singer and had a comedy 
show on Saturday nights back in the 1960s.
  But this young man got to Iraq in October, had to have staples put in 
his head from a bullet that grazed his head in December. And on Easter, 
his family received a call that he had been shot by enemy fire and the 
bullet had entered near his left ear and exited the right side. The 
good Lord was working overtime that day. It missed his brain and he is 
going to survive. He is going to have some challenges, and I ask that 
everybody join me in keeping him and his family in our hearts and our 
prayers.
  We have all been touched by this. My brother-in-law is in the Air 
Force. He is serving in the Middle East tonight, and I am so very proud 
of his service and all of those who serve us in uniform. They do 
everything that we as a government ask them to do. But it is very 
important that we not only support them but that we provide them a 
direction that can ensure victory in Iraq and allow them to return home 
in the not-too-distant future to their families and loved ones.

[[Page 10148]]



                              {time}  2145

  I thank the gentleman for standing here with me tonight to demand 
accountability because we owe it to these brave men and women in 
uniform who serve our country and who we are so very proud of.
  This is not a Democrat or a Republican thing. This is an American 
thing, and as Americans, we all stand in support of our men and women 
in uniform, not only while they are serving us overseas, but we have a 
commitment to them to provide them a new generation of veterans coming 
home with the very best in medicine and health care and opportunities 
so that they can be reintegrated into our society as productive 
citizens, as important citizens who have done so much for this country 
and for whom we owe so much.
  I am very pleased to be also joined this evening by a fellow Blue Dog 
from the State of Tennessee, Mr. Lincoln Davis. At this time, I would 
yield to the gentleman from Tennessee.
  Mr. LINCOLN DAVIS of Tennessee. I thank my friend from Arkansas (Mr. 
Ross).
  I have had an opportunity to get to meet a lot of folks that I have 
served with here in the U.S. House. All of those obviously within the 
Blue Dog Coalition have become pretty endeared to me because of the 
commitments we focus on as being deficit hawks and defense hawks. We 
talk about those issues conservatively. I am going to talk a little bit 
about each of those issues tonight.
  I had a privilege recently to spend considerable time with my good 
friend John Salazar from Colorado. I have become convinced he knows how 
to hook up a piece of equipment.
  I am also convinced in the conversations with him that he and his 
family have shared in the good Lord's Earth in being farmers with his 
brothers; and in talking with him, I had a much deeper understanding 
and certainly a much deeper abiding friendship knowing that as my 
brother and I both farm, brother doing most of it back home, that all 
of us come from different parts of the country maybe, but we all have 
that same spirit and that same heartfelt belief that America is the 
greatest place in the world to live and raise your family. For those of 
us who live in rural areas, obviously we believe that is probably the 
best place for America to raise their families.
  I traveled today with a group of young students from both Clark 
Grange and York Institute, being named after Alvin C. York, Sergeant 
York, from the hometown of Pall Mall where I live, and as we traveled 
through the Capitol I could see their eyes light up as we talked about 
the history of this great building that we serve in, the great Chamber 
that we are in here this afternoon.
  But as you look on the wall in the rotunda, you realize that America 
in the 1770s, in 1775, at the Boston siege, we convinced with our 
ragtag Army, the Continental Army, convinced the British soldiers and 
sailors that we could defeat them, and they set sail late in the 
winter, early spring and went to New York. We followed them there, and 
by 1776 we suffered a pretty strong defeat.
  The first victory that we received for our independence, for our 
democracy that we have was in Saratoga in the fall of 1777, which 
convinced another nation called France to come and join us in our fight 
for independence, but I can assure you, no one won our independence for 
us. In this country, we fought until basically the battle at Yorktown 
where Cornwallis, general of the British forces, decided that he had to 
surrender, and surrendered.
  That basically ended the hostilities until Washington in 1783 
resigned his commission to the Continental Congress that existed at 
that time. So from 1775 basically until hostilities pretty much ceased 
in 1781, we fought for our independence in this country. We fought so 
we could establish a democracy that would be a shining example, as Mr. 
Reagan used to say, on that hill to the rest of the nations of the 
world that this is what can be accomplished.
  That took us 6 years, and 2 years into being sure to sort of protect 
that fragile peace that we had until Washington gave up his commission 
and surrendered it in 1783.
  I want to remind the people of America and the people of Iraq, we 
fought for our independence. We fought for this democracy that we have. 
No one came to this country and forced upon us a democracy. No one came 
to this country and said this is the gift we want to give you.
  The blood and the tears and the hard work and the sweat of our young 
men and women from this country have been in Iraq now for over 4 years, 
toiling, and in fact, in many cases going to war with the Iraqis, first 
of all, to depose a ruthless dictator, we all agree with that, and then 
we fought with the Iraqis and in many cases against the Iraqis, whether 
they be Sunni or Shia, to say we want to give you this gift that we 
fought for over 200 years ago, we want to give you this gift called 
democracy.
  In 2005, in December, we literally sent a surge of our troops over in 
the midsummer of 2005 to be sure that those brave individuals from 
Iraq, men and women, over 12 million of them, went to vote to establish 
the leaders of their country so they could establish their own 
Constitution. The surge then allowed them to vote. They finalized their 
commitment, in my opinion, for the democracy.
  No one gave us ours. We are trying to give them theirs. And we have 
tried and we have tried and we have tried and we have spent billions of 
dollars making it happen.
  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I often tell 
this story of my father. I served during the tail end of Vietnam and my 
father was a World War II veteran. My son served now during Iraqi 
Freedom. He just finished his tour last December, but I like to tell 
this story of my father who was a proud veteran.
  At the age of 82, my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease; 
and as was usual on Sunday mornings, I would go over to Mom and Dad's 
ranch house, and we would have breakfast with my mom and dad. We had 
been told by the doctors that my dad had Alzheimer's, and it was one 
day right around, he must have been around 84 when one Sunday morning 
we heard him fumbling around in his back bedroom. Shortly thereafter, 
he came out and in his hand he bore his World War II staff sergeant 
uniform, and he told us, this is the uniform that I want to be buried 
in. We thought at the time, well, it sounded a little bit self-serving 
but doctors tell you not to argue with Alzheimer's patients. So we 
said, sure, Dad, no problem. We will do that.
  Well, the disease continued to progress over the next couple of 
years, but often, often he would bring up the issue of wanting to be 
buried in his uniform, and it was at the age of 86 that my father 
suffered a severe heart attack. My mother called me over. We live about 
a quarter mile away. When I got there, the ambulance was there, and I 
remember lifting my father off the floor to put him on the gurney to 
take him to the hospital. And with the last ounce of strength he had in 
his body, he lifted his arms up around my neck and he said, I love you, 
and the last word he ever whispered to me was the word ``uniform.''
  My father had forgotten almost everything in life, even how to use 
his bodily functions; but there are two things he had not forgotten, 
the love that he had for his family and the love that he had for his 
country and how proud he was to have served his country.
  For many veterans, that is the greatest legacy that they have, and so 
when we propose an Iraqi war supplemental, we are also proposing 
funding to make sure that the veterans that have served this country 
are protected.
  I tell this story because it is important that we protect those that 
have protected us, and I know that we as members of the Blue Dog 
Coalition are very proud to stand beside our veterans and make sure 
that they have the things that they need.
  The gentleman from Arkansas talks about visiting Walter Reed. I do 
that on a regular basis, and it is the most disheartening feeling in 
the world to see our troops without arms and legs. They do not ask for 
anything. All they

[[Page 10149]]

ask for is help me get through life. We owe that to our veterans.
  Mr. LINCOLN DAVIS of Tennessee. You have to invite me to come out to 
your home sometime. I invite you to my home in Pall Mall, but I have 
got to visit more with your family. As I learn more and more, I realize 
the quality of people that we have here serving. It was such a 
wonderful yield, the comments you made during that period of time. It 
is certainly good to be on the floor with you.
  But as I talk about that democracy that we fought for, that we fought 
for, I realize that there has never been a time that a democracy in any 
country has ever been imposed from without. It has always been from 
within, the French Revolution, the startings of the Magna Carta where 
we said we are no longer going to give taxes if you are basically going 
to squander it on your parties, Mr. King.
  When Israel established a nation in the Middle East, what type was 
it? It was a democracy.
  My fear is that we can keep our soldiers, our young men and women in 
the battlefields in Iraq for a long, long time, and we can never force 
a democracy on the people of Iraq or anywhere else. We went into Iraq, 
and Iraq especially, without realizing the national customs, the 
traditions, the faith, their family values that are totally different 
in many cases than ours.
  I think everyone loves liberty and freedom. I just believe as we 
engage that we ought to realize that we cannot impose our will on 
anyone unless we do it with a much larger force than what we have 
today.
  Let me stay on Iraq for a moment.
  Mr. ROSS. The gentleman from Tennessee makes a very important point, 
and that is, look, I was here on 9/11 and shortly after the plane hit 
the Pentagon we were evacuated. A few hours later, I would learn a 
young Navy petty officer named Nehamin Lyons from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, 
would be among those killed on that tragic day that we now all refer to 
as 9/11.
  And all of us, Democrats and Republicans, for the most part voted to 
go to Afghanistan to put an end to terrorism.
  I will never forget later being invited to the White House September 
26, 2002, sitting in a cabinet room: Andy Card, Condoleezza Rice, about 
18 Members of Congress and the President. I have still got the notes I 
took that day, and the President told us that Saddam Hussein has 
weapons of mass destruction, trains terrorists on weapons of mass 
destruction, and if military force is used, it will be, in the 
President's words, swift. September 26, 2002.
  And then a few months later, we saw the banner ``Mission 
Accomplished,'' and we thought, wow, it was swift. But now we know, and 
I am not one of these conspiracy theorists that believes the President 
misled us. I think he received bad intelligence and shared it with us; 
and until proven otherwise, that is what I will believe because 
anything other than that would be a very unfair and strong attempt at 
trying to say something that we do not know whether it is true or not. 
I have to assume he just received bad intelligence.
  But I will tell you this: there is not a more difficult decision that 
Members of Congress have to make than whether or not to send our men 
and women in uniform into harm's way; and when we are asked and called 
upon to make those kind of decisions, we have got to know, we must know 
that our intelligence is correct.
  So for the most part, we all voted to go there. We are now there. 
What do we do about it? You want to talk about supporting the troops, 
one of the ways that you support the troops is to stop moving the goal 
post, to stop moving the victory line.
  We say we went there because of weapons of mass destruction. They no 
longer have them. We won.
  Then they said, well, we have got to stay until we overthrow Saddam.

                              {time}  2200

  We won. They said we have to stay till we capture him. We pulled him 
out of that spider hole. We won. Then the administration said we have 
to stay till we assassinate him. We assassinate him until he is 
executed, put to death, and he was.
  So, based on that, we won. Then they said, well, we have got to stay 
until the Iraqi people can have elections. They did. We won.
  Yet, now they are saying that, you know, we have got to stay there, 
and it's, you know, the line they use now is it's better to fight the 
terrorists there than here. There weren't terrorists in Iraq. Saddam 
wouldn't put up with them. He chopped their heads off.
  Obviously, there are terrorists there now, and there are those from 
other neighboring countries wanting to create havoc. But for the most 
part what we have today, as the gentleman from Tennessee indicated, is 
civil war. Nobody fought our civil war for us, and it's pretty apparent 
the Iraqis don't want us fighting their civil war for them.
  Now, understand, we had 3,200 U.S. soldiers die there, 25,000 
injured, over 10,000 in ways that will forever change their lives. We 
are sending the Iraqis $12 million an hour. What do they think about 
us? Seventy-one percent don't want us there and 60 percent of them 
think it's okay to kill a U.S. soldier.
  Contrast that with Afghanistan, where the Taliban is back on the 
rise. They are back training. We will spend more money in Iraq this 
month than we will spend in Afghanistan in the next 2\1/2\ years. We 
have 225,000 troops in the Iraqi region today, and the President wants 
to add 21,000 more. Yet we only have 25,000 in Afghanistan.
  The Taliban is back, organizing and getting trained, and the 
mountains of Afghanistan are nothing more than a breeding ground for 
terrorists. This administration is so focused on Iraq that they are 
losing sight of what is going on in Afghanistan, where 84 percent of 
the people in Afghanistan do want us there.
  I just wanted to throw that out there for any comment you might have, 
because I thought you made an excellent point about how we fought our 
Civil War, and it's time they accept responsibility and fight their 
own. We cannot continue to put our men and women in uniform on their 
front lines and have them standing behind us. It is time for them to 
step up, accept responsibilities, train their men and women, and put 
them in uniform. They need to fight this war, if they really want a 
taste of freedom. No one can give you that. You have got to get it 
country by country.
  Mr. LINCOLN DAVIS of Tennessee. I hear the other side, the minority 
party in this Chamber, talk about the defeatist Democrats, the 
retreatist Democrats, whatever terminology they want to use. I find 
that somewhat repulsive that there are those who would assume that 
Democrats want to lose a war.
  Let me tell you something. I come from Tennessee. Andrew Jackson in 
the war of 1812 and 1814, when he had that battle, the war was over 
with. There had already been a surrender of the British. He still 
fought that war, and I believe he was a good Democrat. In World War I, 
a fellow named Woodrow Wilson, I happen to believe he was a Democrat, 
he fought the war until it was over with. We won that war.
  In World War II, we went to war and took 16 million people. We call 
them the Greatest Generation. They came back home, and they started 
having children like rabbits in the spring. That is 77 million folks we 
call baby boomers. They give us a huge workforce in this country.
  Then we went to Korea, and let me finish, in World War II, we lost 
Roosevelt during that time. Harry Truman had the forces. We had invaded 
Normandy and had conquered the Germans and had conquered Europe. We had 
already put in place the invasion Army that was going into Japan. Harry 
Truman changed course. You need to replay that message to the White 
House, Harry Truman changed course. He didn't put the invasion force in 
the ships. He dropped a couple of bombs, a horrible occurrence that 
happened, but it saved millions of lives and stopped the war. Then we 
occupied Germany and Japan, and they now have two thriving democracies 
in the world because they chose that type of government.
  Then in Korea we had a fellow named Truman who got us engaged there 
as

[[Page 10150]]

well, happened to be a Democrat. But the person who quit fighting was 
Eisenhower, a Republican.
  In the 1970s, in Vietnam, the President at that time was a Republican 
named Richard Nixon, when we left Vietnam. We can talk about Democrats 
not following through. We have never lost a war when we have had 
Democrats in the White House. Andrew Jackson, when he was in New 
Orleans, a general, we couldn't keep him from fighting and conquering 
General Packingham.
  I am tired about this talk of the Democratic Party not being strong 
on national defense. Baloney. That is not the case. Let's stop it. 
Let's start talking about how we win, and how we stay in Iraq, and that 
becomes winning for us.
  This resolution that we vote on tomorrow still allows several 
thousand people to stay in Iraq after we have taken our soldiers out of 
the kill zone and the battle zones in Iraq.
  We still will be there with several tens of thousands of troops that 
will be training, providing security, and protection, quite frankly, 
for many of the folks in Iraq. We will also keep tens of thousands of 
troops there that will seek out and search the al Qaeda cells if they 
exist in Iraq, or any terrorist groups that exist in Iraq.
  So I get kind of unhappy when I hear the other side start talking 
about what great success we are having. It is my hope that this search 
would work, because then we in America can claim a huge successful 
victory in Iraq.
  Mr. SALAZAR. I was in the Soviet Union during the fall of communism 
when Gorbachev was still in power in 1989, when we were out there 
studying international government with the Colorado Agriculture 
Leadership Program.
  It's true, I couldn't agree with you more, that the spirit of 
democracy has to come from within, from within a country. They want to 
have it. They want to want it. A perfect example of how you win a war, 
it's with the spirit of sheer military force, but you also have to have 
a diplomatic surge as well. That is what Blue Dogs are asking for. They 
are asking to adopt the Iraqi Study Group recommendations. Sure, we can 
support a group surge, but coupled with a diplomatic surge. That is how 
you win wars. But they have to want it.
  Mr. LINCOLN DAVIS of Tennessee. As we move now, I want to move 
briefly to the accusing tone we often hear that Democrats are big 
government. When Bill Clinton became President in 1992, and was sworn 
in 1993, the government had grown to 22.4 percent of gross domestic 
income.
  When he became the President, working with the Republican Congress in 
1995, we saw a government decrease of 18.1 percent of gross domestic 
income. We saw over a 4 percent decrease in spending during the 8 years 
that a Democratic President was in office. It had grown to a little 
more than 22 percent under Reagan and Bush and had receded to 18.1 
percent under Bill Clinton.
  It has now grown over the last 5 years, 6 years, to over 21 percent. 
How can anyone in this Chamber talk about being conservatives or 
blaming anyone for growth? The growth periods actually have occurred 
under Reagan, Bush, decreased under Clinton, and increased under this 
Bush administration.
  How do you call that being conservative? I just think that it is time 
that the American people realized that they are being told a lot of 
things on this floor that aren't true.
  I used to see a truth squad. I really wish they were telling the 
truth on a lot of issues that they were talking about.
  I thank you for allowing me to come visit with you tonight.
  Mr. LINCOLN DAVIS of Tennessee. Mr. Salazar, it was good to be with 
you and hear the commitment that your family has made, your father and 
others, to defend the Nation.
  Mr. SALAZAR. May I ask a question? You have some figures on this 
chart that show that basically through the Iraqi war supplementals we 
have actually budgeted $378.5 billion. Could I ask the gentleman, is 
this really the true cost of the war, or is this just what we budgeted 
through the supplementals?
  Mr. ROSS. As you can see from the chart here, let me just work 
through it with you. With the enactment of fiscal year 2007 
appropriations, Congress has approved a total of about $378.5 billion 
for military operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks. According to 
the Congressional Research Service, this number will continue to 
escalate over the next several years.
  The cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom alone cost American taxpayers 
$2.5 billion in 2001 and 2002, $51 billion in 2003, $77.3 billion in 
2004, $87.3 billion in 2005, and $104.2 billion in 2006. You see a 
trend here. The cost of the war continues to go up.
  Mr. SALAZAR. But is this the actual, is this an actual true 
reflection of what the war in Iraq has cost? For example, we see that 
our troop levels, our military armor, and the equipment that our troops 
have is not adequate in many cases. So are we actually spending from 
other sources as well to supplement this?
  Mr. ROSS. It's my understanding the cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom 
is $378.5 billion. That is to date. Now, you have to understand what 
that means is, at this time we are spending about $2 billion a week, 
about $9.5 billion to $10 billion a month, or, again, put it another 
way, if you do the math, that is about $12 million an hour.
  The Congress has appropriated $29.9 billion in aid to the Iraqi 
people. Of this amount, only $16.9 billion of that has been disbursed 
to the Iraqis, and yet the President is now asking for more.
  On February 5, 2007, the Defense Department submitted a $94.4 billion 
fiscal 2007 supplemental request. If enacted, the DOD's total emergency 
funding for fiscal year 2007, and, again, for 2006, was $104 billion, 
this is to date, today, this is $60 billion. But if they get what they 
asked for, then the spending for $2007 will be $163.4 billion. I will 
repeat that. In 2006 it was $104 billion. In 2007 it will be $163.4 
billion; or, put it another way, 40 percent more from the previous year 
and 50 percent more than the Office of Management and Budget estimated 
last summer.
  Now, the administration also requested about $3 billion for Iraq, and 
$1 billion for Afghanistan in emergency foreign and diplomatic 
operations funds, if that is where you are going with that. If the 
fiscal year 2007 supplemental request is approved, total war-related 
funding would reach about $607 billion, including about $448 billion 
for Iraq, $126 billion for Afghanistan, $28 billion for enhanced 
security, and $5 billion that is unallocated.
  For fiscal year 2008, the Department of Defense has already requested 
$481.4 billion for its regular budget, and $141.7 billion for war 
costs. If Congress approves both, the fiscal year 2007 emergency 
supplemental request and the fiscal year 2008 war request for the 
fiscal year beginning in October, then total funding for Iraq and the 
global war on terror would reach about $752 billion, including $564 
billion for Iraq, $155 billion for Afghanistan, and $28 billion for 
enhanced security. Put another way, it almost doubles the number that 
was prepared January 24 of this year.
  In fiscal year 2007 alone, spending on the thousands of government 
contractors involved in reconstruction has risen to $10 billion per 
month, including $8.6 billion for Iraq and $1.4 billion for Operation 
Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
  Since the war is essentially financed through deficit spending, 
interest payments over time could amount to another $100 billion or 
more.
  The Congressional Budget Office estimates that additional war costs 
for the next 10 years could total $919 billion by 2013. If these 
estimates are added to already appropriated amounts, total funding for 
Iraq and the war on terror could reach about $980 billion to $1.4 
trillion by 2017.

                              {time}  2215

  Adding another 21,500 troops alone will cost the American taxpayers 
another $5.6 billion per year.
  Believe me, we have got 225,000 troops in the Iraqi region today. If 
adding another 21,500, which the President is already doing, would win 
this thing, we would all be for it. But, again, we

[[Page 10151]]

have had numerous victories over there. Again, the President and this 
administration continues to move the goal post, the victory line. And 
that is not fair to our men and women in uniform who have performed 
bravely and admirably for our Nation.
  We don't need a troop surge in Iraq. We need a diplomatic surge, and 
we need to demand responsibility from the Iraqi people.
  I yield to the gentleman from Colorado.
  Mr. SALAZAR. I want to thank the gentleman for his comments. I think 
it is clear, with the figures that you have given us, that the $378 
billion is not really a true reflection of what the Iraqi war has cost 
us.
  And you are absolutely right, we as Blue Dogs, we as Democrats will 
stand strong with our troops making sure that they have the equipment 
that they need, and that is one of the things I wanted to talk about 
tonight was the Iraq war supplemental that our leadership has proposed 
includes making sure that we take care of our veterans; it includes 
money for devastated farmers and ranchers across this country due to 
weather problems and other issues.
  So I believe that this is the right thing to do. It is the right 
thing to do. But I would ask the administration to please look into 
trying some diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, and hopefully we can 
move this forward and bring our troops home as quickly and safely as 
possible. In the meantime, let us not forget the men and women in 
uniform who serve this country bravely. And I want to thank the 
gentleman for inviting me today to visit with the American public and 
tell them the truth about what is going on with America's budget.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Colorado for joining me this 
evening here on the floor to talk about restoring accountability to our 
government and demanding responsibility from the Iraqi people.
  The American people spoke loud and clear on election day: they are 
ready for a new direction in Iraq. They don't want more of the same; 
they want a new direction. And that is what will be voted on on the 
floor of the House tomorrow. There will be a lot of 
mischaracterizations of what we are voting on.
  Here is the bottom line: we are giving the President every penny he 
asked for for Iraq. Above and beyond that, we are going to provide 
funding for Walter Reed Army Hospital and for other VA hospital 
facilities to ensure that this new generation of veterans coming home, 
not only from Iraq, but also from Afghanistan, receive the very best in 
health care available to them, because we owe it to them. We owe a huge 
debt of gratitude to our brave men and women in uniform who have done 
everything that has been asked of them.
  What this bill also does, I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, that 
people understand this, the other thing this bill says is that we will 
have troops in Iraq for another year. And even after the year is up, we 
will continue to have troops there; but instead of having our men and 
women in uniform from America on the front lines getting shot at and 
wounded and killed, we will be there in an advisory role to train 
Iraqis and demand, a year from now, demand that they step up, that they 
step up and provide the police and military force for their country.
  I think it is very important that the American people understand we 
are going to send our brave men and women in uniform every dime the 
President has asked for them, but we are also going to demand 
accountability and responsibility by the Iraqi people and tell them a 
year from now it is their turn.
  Mr. SALAZAR. I just wanted to thank the gentleman. We see him on the 
floor every Tuesday trying to get the message out to the American 
public and trying to make sure that the figures that are being stated 
here in Congress are the true figures. I think that the American people 
deserve to know the truth, and I commend the gentleman for his 
dedication not only to the Blue Dog Coalition but also to the American 
people. And it is super-important, I believe, that the American people 
know the truth. Thank you very much. I appreciate your inviting me to 
speak with you tonight.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Colorado, a fellow Blue Dog 
member, a member of the 43-member strong fiscally conservative 
Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, for joining me here on the floor this 
evening.
  Mr. Speaker, if you have any comments, questions, or concerns, I 
would invite you to e-mail us at BlueD[email protected]. Again, Mr. 
Speaker, if you have any comments, questions, or concerns, I would 
encourage you to e-mail us at BlueD[email protected].
  In the final 3 minutes that we have in the Special Order this 
evening, I want to point out that one of the things that has been 
endorsed by the Blue Dog Coalition that we are 100 percent united on is 
what is called House Resolution 97, Providing for Operation Iraqi 
Freedom Cost Accountability. The Blue Dogs have endorsed and introduced 
House Resolution 97. It was offered by Jane Harman, former ranking 
member of the House Intelligence Committee and Congressman Patrick 
Murphy who was a captain in our Army and served in Iraq. And it 
provides for Operation Iraqi Freedom cost accountability to address the 
lack of oversight and accountability with regard to the Federal 
Government's funding of the war in Iraq.
  House Resolution 97, which currently has 61 cosponsors, puts forward 
tangible commonsense proposals that ensure future transparency and 
accountability in the funding of Operation Iraqi Freedom. If we are 
going to send $12 million an hour of your tax money to Iraq, we expect 
accountability and responsibility for how that money is being spent. We 
want to know without a shadow of a doubt that it is being spent to 
protect and equip our brave men and women in uniform. It is an 
important first step toward making sure that more resources get to our 
troops in the field.
  There is a big debate right now of whether the body armor provided 
them in 2003, is that the best body armor in 2007. If we are going to 
send our troops over there, we must provide them with the very best, 
most advanced equipment that is available.
  House Resolution 97 focuses on four crucial points for demanding 
fiscal responsibility in Iraq:
  Number one, a call for transparency on how Iraq war funds are spent;
  Number two, the creation of a Truman Commission to investigate the 
awarding of contracts;
  Number three, a need to fund the Iraq war through the normal 
appropriations process, and not through the so-called emergency 
supplementals;
  And, number four, using American resources to improve Iraqi 
assumption of internal policing operations, demand more from this new 
Iraqi Government.
  In addition, House Resolution 97 calls for the Iraqi Government and 
its people to progress toward full responsibility for internally 
policing their country. Members of the Blue Dog Coalition also believe 
strongly that funding requests for the Iraq war should come through the 
normal appropriations process rather than through multiple emergency 
supplemental requests. Since 2003, the Republican-held Congress has 
been funding the war through emergency supplemental requests, $166 
billion in 2003, $25 billion in 2004, $76 billion in 2005, $50 billion 
in 2006, and another $70 billion after that and $99 billion for 2007 
and $142 for 2008. And the list goes on and on.
  If we are going to be there and if we know we are going to be there, 
let's put it in the budget and quit hiding
it in the so-called emergency supplementals. The American people 
deserve to know that some $12 million an hour of their tax money is 
going to Iraq. And what the Blue Dogs are asking for in House 
Resolution 97, we are demanding from this administration and from the 
Pentagon accountability to ensure that every dime that goes over there 
is spent protecting and equipping and serving our honorable men and 
women in uniform who do everything that this country asks of them.
  In closing, Mr. Speaker, I ask that you join me in keeping our brave 
men and women in uniform serving us tonight in Iraq and Afghanistan and

[[Page 10152]]

other parts of the world in our hearts and in our prayers.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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