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U.S. Representatives to Vote Against $81 Billion to Continue War in Iraq

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 16 March 2005
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Edito Wars and conflicts International USA

WASHINGTON - U.S. Representatives Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), Jim McDermott (D-WA), John Conyers (D-MI), and Danny Davis (D-IL) today announced that they will vote against President Bush’s request for $81 Billion to continue war in Iraq. The war in Iraq has not made America safer, the supplemental request lacks accountability and the President has failed to plan for the return of U.S. troops. The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on President Bush’s supplemental request today or tomorrow.

The following are Congresswoman Woolsey’s words as written for today’s press conference in the U.S. Capitol:

"Good morning, I want to thank my colleagues for joining me today.

"This week, the Congress is debating the President’s request for more than $80 billion additional dollars to finance his adventure in Iraq. I will oppose this bill because I support the troops and have deep admiration for their courage. I will vote against the supplemental because I believe our brave soldiers are being used as pawns by their civilian superiors, whose wastefulness and incompetence is betraying their duty to keep us safe.

"This supplemental will bring the overall Iraq price tag to more than $200 billion. What are the American people getting for their $200 billion? What kind of return on their investment?

"We’ve created a hotbed of terrorism in Iraq. We’ve earned the wrath of the entire Muslim world. Meanwhile, we have a swiss cheese homeland security system. And we’ve lost over 1,500 of our troops, not to mention the thousands wounded and the many who will suffer mental trauma for the rest of their lives.

"The Center for American Progress did a study of what $200 billion could really buy in terms of our security:

* Only $5 billion would give our ports and waterways the protection they need from attack.
* It would cost only $1 billion to screen all passenger air cargo.
* Just $2.6 billion would allow our rail and public transit systems to meet important security requirements.

"Just think of what we could do at home for $200 billion - universal pre-school education,

comprehensive health coverage for every American, a safe child care system that will give peace of mind to every working family.

"And there would still be plenty left over to implement a Smart Security agenda that would be about preventing war instead of preemptive war...that would eliminate programs like Star Wars

and other Cold War relics that are doing nothing to keep us safe.

"Smart Security would mean robust multilateral alliances to stop the spread of terrorism, vigorous inspection regimes to stop WMD proliferation, and an ambitious humanitarian development program that tackles the poverty and despair that foster terrorism in the first place.

"$200 billion — that’s about $675 for every American man, woman and child. Which is not to say that the sacrifices of this war have been spread evenly throughout the population.

The well-connected and the wealthy haven’t been asked to sacrifice a thing, even though rolling back the Bush tax cuts would go a long way toward paying this enormous bill.

"No, the ones who have sacrificed are coming home in flag-draped coffins because they were sent to depose a regime that represented no imminent threat to our security. Their families didn’t get a tax cut. The only thing they got from the government was a devastating letter that Donald Rumsfeld didn’t even bother to sign personally.

"The most disturbing thing about the President’s request for more Iraq funding is the lack of accountability: Why are we writing another check for a mission that’s been so badly botched? Who’s being held responsible for the misuse of the money we’ve already approved?

If Secretary Rumsfeld and the Pentagon couldn’t manage to get body armor to our troops with the first $100 billion we gave them, why would we trust them with even more hard-earned American tax dollars?

"And where is this money going? How much of it is enriching war profiteers? Why did the Army waive its usual procedures and make full payments to Halliburton despite legitimate questions about overbilling and financial mismanagement? And why can’t we get a congressional investigation into the $9 billion that mysteriously disappeared from the books at the Coalition Provisional Authority?

"If the President wants more money for this adventure, he can take it out of something he cares about instead of taking it out of the hides of the American people.

"No more blank checks. I will vote against this supplemental, and I urge my colleagues to do the same."

http://www.commondreams.org/news200...

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Forum posts

  • They must have more than 5 congresspeople...It looks like Kucinich is voting against it.

    "From day one, this Administration has misled the public and the Congress about this war. We were told there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, there were none. We were told we would be greeted as liberators, we were not. We were told Iraq reconstruction would pay for itself, it has not. And, we were told the Administration had a plan to win the peace in Iraq, they do not. Congress should reject this Supplemental request, along with the Administration’s failed policy in Iraq, and work to bring our soldiers home.”

    http://www.house.gov/apps/list/pres...

    • The supine Congress will easily pass the funding bill. They are ever eager to please the fake president and spend our money. OUR MONEY GOES TO KILL AND MAIM INNOCENT CIVILIANS, ENRICH WAR PROFITEERS AND ERODE AMERICA’S STANDING IN THE WORLD OF NATIONS.

      There is a time to sit and watch and a time to stand and fight. When Congress votes in favor of this waste of money and lives, who will stand up and fight? The American public, who’s been duped by the controlled media? Not a chance. We’re getting what we deserve for decades of apathy. Pray and keep your powder dry.

    • Gee, even a recent NYT acknowledged the existance of WMD in Iraq and the Darfur report said SAddam was intent on ending sacntions and rebuilding his arms.

      What more do you need?

    • so, you are one of the few who still think that they DID have weapons? the Dulfer report showed that he had no programs going AT ALL SINCE like 1990ish...don’t twist it around.

      Oh yeah, I forgot how they nuked us and threw their poisonous gas on us when we invaded! What a serious threat they were. (This is sarcasm, in case any ignorant "righties" can’t recognize it)

  • Of course congress will pass the funding. No onw is really against the war.

    There is little there is interest in the American public in the fact that they are following through on complete falsehoods. It feels that they are still out for Muslim blood for the fools that conducted 9/11.

    What is really sad is that I read somewhere that the Iraqi National Library and Archives were destroyed. It is estimated that they contained 70 million volumes and artifacts dating back to 5000 B.C.

    Morbidly funny that no one is calling this as anthropological genocide.

    • You read wrong AGAIN.

      There are hundreds of Liberal Hate America Hate American Military Hate Anything American that are spreading lie after lie after lie. The only people that fall for them are people like you that want to believe them.

    • What you supposedly read was just another liberal posting vicious lies on the internet.