[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5272-5273]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 CUT AFGHANISTAN, NOT SUPPORT FOR SENIORS, SCHOOLCHILDREN, AND WORKING 
                                FAMILIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, my friends on other side of the aisle 
released their budget blueprint for 2012 yesterday. Let's leave aside 
for the moment that they're prepared to shut down the government rather 
than fund it at acceptable levels for the rest of fiscal year 2011. If 
you thought H.R. 1 was bad, wait until you see what they have in store 
for 2012 and the decade to come.
  It's an appalling, radical, and reckless proposal. They want to shred 
the social safety net and decimate the programs for the most vulnerable 
Americans, the programs that they depend on to get through day-to-day 
life. They demand sacrifice from working families and the middle class, 
but none, no sacrifice from special interests and the big oil 
companies.
  I saw a lot of words in their budget proposal. But one that I don't 
believe was mentioned a single time is ``Afghanistan.'' The war in 
Afghanistan, in addition to having cost us more than 1,500 American 
lives, is costing the taxpayers nearly $7 billion a month and is 
proving to be a crashing failure. This war is in its 10th year, and we 
still haven't vanquished the Taliban. We still haven't brought a stable 
democracy to Afghanistan. And we still haven't trained the Afghans to 
take responsibility for their own security.
  The Republicans want to cut wasteful, ineffective government 
programs. Well, if that is true, I suggest the majority start with 
Afghanistan before going after American seniors, schoolchildren, and 
working people. My Republican colleagues believe in limited government 
as long as the things they're limiting are taxes paid by special 
interests and investments in people who need a helping hand. When it 
comes to foreign invasions and decade-long military occupations, 
Republicans are the biggest spenders of all.

[[Page 5273]]

  With these priorities, not only have they lost their moral compass, 
they've lost the American people as well. Recent polling shows that 
overwhelming majorities want to see spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and 
education increased or stay the same. By contrast, nearly two-thirds of 
Americans are fed up with the war in Afghanistan and don't think it's 
worth fighting.
  It's impossible, Madam Speaker, to take seriously any budget proposal 
that doesn't even mention Afghanistan or Iraq and doesn't cut billions 
and billions in wasteful war spending from the budget.
  It's time to bring our troops home. It's the right thing to do. It's 
what the people want. It's a sensible, humane, and compassionate path 
to fiscal responsibility.

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