[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3061]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  THE ``MORAL THREAT'' IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. In a speech this past weekend to our religious 
broadcasters, the Speaker of the House called the Federal debt ``a 
moral threat'' to our Nation. It's an interesting choice of words from 
the leader of the House majority, who has been a cheerleader for the 
Nation's most morally objectionable policy of all--the disastrous, 
despicable war in Afghanistan.
  For some reason, their moral sensibilities are not offended by a 
military conflict that has cost us hundreds of billions of dollars and 
1,500 of our bravest, bravest people without advancing national 
security objectives or truly diminishing the terrorist threat at the 
same time.
  So how are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle resolving 
their moral dilemma? By asking corporate special interests to give up 
handouts and tax breaks? By asking the wealthiest Americans to give 
back more to the Nation that has given them so much opportunity?
  Nope. By their moral calculations, the answer is to demand sacrifice 
from the very Americans who are bearing the brunt of this recession--
from the people and communities who depend upon public investment. 
Their moral compass tells them to cut vital programs to the bone or 
eliminate them altogether: food safety, family planning, health 
research, public housing, transportation infrastructure, college aid, 
and on and on.
  There was an article in my home newspaper over the weekend about how 
local health clinics could be devastated by these cuts. California 
alone stands to lose nearly $13 million in homeland security grants 
needed to train and equip first responders. The Republican budget cuts 
also, according to one study, would destroy 700,000 jobs--but that's 
not keeping the Speaker up at night. He sees Americans out of work, and 
instead of saying this is a moral threat, he says, ``So be it.''
  In what moral universe, I ask you, Mr. Speaker, does it make sense to 
destroy jobs at home but send more Americans to die in a senseless war 
abroad?
  Programs like COPS and Head Start, which the majority wants slashed, 
save lives. The war in Afghanistan, which isn't even on the table in 
this budget debate, has ended nearly 1,500 American lives. Our 
surviving servicemen and -women are coming home with devastating 
physical and psychological wounds. Yet the majority party, so 
enthusiastic in its support for Afghanistan spending, wants to 
eliminate a homeless veterans initiative.
  That's their version of morality: Send young Americans halfway around 
the world to be chewed up and traumatized. Then pull the plug on the 
support they need when they get home. That's what they call supporting 
the troops.
  The majority could kill the proverbial two birds with one stone if 
they wanted. They could just about solve their debt crisis by bringing 
our troops home and ending the moral stain on our Nation--that is the 
Afghanistan war.
  Somehow, I'm not holding my breath. Until the Speaker and my 
Republican colleagues are prepared to show moral courage on 
Afghanistan, I refuse to take their moral outrage about the deficit 
seriously.

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