[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12535]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        THE COSTS OF THE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WARS ARE TOO HIGH

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, according to both the Congressional Research 
Service and the Center for Defense Information, the costs for the wars 
in Iraq and Afghanistan will reach over $1 trillion by the end of this 
year. Today we are being asked to approve many billions more in a 
supplemental war appropriations bill.
  There has never been anything conservative about these wars. This is 
world government at its worst. We have never had any wars in the past 
with so much waste, fraud, and abuse, and so many billions ripped from 
the taxpayers by Pentagon contractors. Fiscal conservatives should be 
the ones most horrified by all this spending.
  The worst thing is the loss of young American lives, when Iraqi and 
Afghani troops should have been doing this fighting. And there's really 
no telling how much we will have to pay out in future medical and 
disability costs.
  Defense contractors have so many retired admirals and generals to 
lobby for them that they keep requesting and getting more money. But 
these wars have gone on far too long already. We should bring our 
troops and, especially, our rip-off contractors home.

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