[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6047-6048]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   IRS EQUALS IRAQ REVENUE SUPPLIERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page 6048]]


  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, today is April 15, Tax Day. Right now, 
millions of Americans are hurrying to report their incomes to the IRS. 
Usually, ``IRS'' stands for ``Internal Revenue Service,'' but today, it 
might as well stand for ``Iraq revenue suppliers'' because so much of 
our tax revenue is paying for the occupation of Iraq.
  Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize winning economist, has calculated 
the occupation will cost at least $3 trillion. That means that the 
occupation will cost each of our 300 million citizens $10,000, or an 
incredible $40,000 for a family of four.
  America's hardworking families are struggling to keep their heads 
above water as we sink into a deep, what I call, Iraq recession. Yet, 
they're being asked to hand over $40,000, most of which goes to the 
foreign nations that are lending us the money to keep the occupation 
going. And that $40,000, Madam Speaker, will get much bigger if the 
occupation goes on for another few years, for 100 years as some 
cheerleaders for the occupation are discussing.
  What have we gotten for our occupation money? General Petraeus told 
us last week that the security situation in Iraq has gotten much 
better. But 19 of our incredibly brave soldiers died last week. And our 
top military leaders continue to warn us that our obsession with Iraq 
is breaking our military and that we may wake up one day to find that 
we can't meet a real threat to our national security.
  Next month, the IRS will mail out economic stimulus checks. I'm glad 
that that relief is on the way. But the best economic stimulus plan 
would be to end the occupation of Iraq. The American people agree. A 
recent New York Times/CBS poll found that 89 percent of the American 
people believe that the cost of the occupation has contributed to our 
economic problems.
  Last month, the Progressive Caucus put forth an alternative budget 
that showed that we can actually achieve an end to the occupation in 
Iraq and re-order our spending priorities. The budget is truly 
remarkable. We were able to fully fund the education that our children 
deserved and that our Nation must have to remain competitive in the 
global economy.
  We were able to invest in green jobs that could employ millions of 
our citizens and put our Nation on the path to the energy independence 
we must have to fuel our economy and ensure our national security. And 
we were able to provide health care coverage to every American who 
lacks it, not only fulfilling our promise to care for each other, but 
making our country stronger and more competitive in the process.
  But instead of revving up these engines of economic growth and social 
justice, the administration will soon send to Congress yet another 
request for emergency Iraq funding. This time around, the request will 
be for $108 billion.
  Madam Speaker, I agree that we must spend money on Iraq but not the 
way the administration wants to spend it. It wants an open-ended 
occupation. Instead, we must fully fund the safe, responsible 
redeployment of our troops and military contractors out of Iraq.
  And we must help, not do it all, but we must help to reconstruct 
Iraq. We've all heard of the so-called Pottery Barn rule: If you break 
it, you own it. We need to expand that saying: If you break it, you 
have a moral obligation to help rebuild it.
  It's time for the madness to end, Madam Speaker. It's time to bring 
our troops home, get our fiscal house in order, give the Iraqi people 
back their sovereignty and help them rebuild their country and their 
lives.

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