Durbin Speech to National Press Club: A More Secure America--At Home and Around the World

DURBIN SPEECH TO NATIONAL PRESS CLUB: A MORE SECURE AMERICA--AT HOME AND AROUND THE WORLD

Durbin delivered the following speech to the National Press Club on Thursday, January 26, 2006. It is entitled, "A More Secure America -- at Home and Around the World."

Thank you, Leader Pelosi, for those excellent remarks. Leader Pelosi has done an excellent job rallying her House caucus behind good policy, and I hope that in 2006 the American people will give her a chance to make that good policy, good law.

I also want to thank my guest, Mayor John Spring from Quincy, Illinois, for being here. Quincy sits on the banks of the Mississippi River, and a little more than a decade ago, Quincy was severely flooded. An amazing outpouring of community support and a well-coordinated response from James Lee Witt at FEMA proved that natural disasters do not have to overwhelm us.

For the last five years, with one brief interlude of enlightenment in the Senate, Republicans have controlled the White House, the House and the Senate. Since September 11, 2001, virtually every major speech by the President and senior Bush Administration officials has had one theme: American security.

But today, nearly five months after the Katrina catastrophe, more than 1,000 days after the invasion of Iraq, and one week after another taped threat from Osama Bin Laden, Americans are asking themselves this question: Are we as secure -- at home and abroad -- as we need to be, and deserve to be? Looking at the record, the answer is, unfortunately, no.

It is time that President Bush works with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to address the real challenges to America's security. Together, there is nothing Americans cannot do. We ask the President to use these challenges to unite our nation.

The needs are great. On national security, Osama bin Laden is still at large. Al Qaeda is resurging in Afghanistan. There was no Iraq-al Qaeda connection before the war; sadly, there is one now. Iraq is now the training ground for a new generation of terrorists.

The war in Iraq has diverted resources away from the war on terror, and damaged America's standing in the world. It has limited our options to deal with other clear threats to our security - including the growing nuclear threats from both Iran and North Korea. And it stretched the finest military force in the world dangerously thin.

Two new reports came out yesterday that underscore the danger. The first was written by a retired Army Officer under a contract with the Pentagon. He warned that the Army is "in a race against time" to adjust to its dramatically increased tempo of operations "or risk ‘breaking' the force in the forms of a catastrophic decline" in recruitment and re-enlistment.

The other report, by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and former Defense Secretary William Perry, warned that the strains on our armed services must be relieved soon or they will have "highly corrosive and potentially long-term effects on the force."

Secretary Rumsfeld said yesterday that our troops battle-hardened. America is justifiably proud of the strength and commitment of our men and women in uniform, but the Iraq war has taken its toll and we owe it to those brave soldiers not to ignore the reality of their sacrifice or the challenges we face in keeping our military strong.

Is our homeland security as strong as it needs to be? Again, the answer is no.

Last October, the 9/11 Commission released its final report card on the status of its recommendations to protect America from terrorism. It contained five Fs, 12 Ds, nine Cs and only one A minus. "Dismal" is how commission member Jim Thompson, the former governor of Illinois and a good Republican, put it.

More than four years after 9/11, security personnel at America's nuclear plants remain ill-equipped and untrained to deter terrorist attacks. There are still 3,000 chemical plants in America where a terrorist attack could threaten more than 10,000 people and, in many cases, more than 1 million people. Yet, the chemical industry remains completely self-regulated when it comes to terrorism. To quote a former Georgia Pacific security official: "Security at 7-11 after midnight is better than that at a plant with a 90-ton tank of chlorine."

Only a small fraction of the cargo that comes into America's ports, and is loaded onto commercial airliners, is inspected. Firefighters, police officers and emergency health care workers still can't communicate with each other in times of crisis - whether it's a terrorist attack or a natural disaster. And the administration continues to call for cuts in programs to help communities hire new police officers and new firefighters - our first line of defense. They continue to ignore the reality that homeland security starts with hometown security.

Why have so many homeland security vulnerabilities been neglected? 9/11 Commission co-chair Governor Tom Kean stated it clearly. Homeland security, he said, is - quote - "not a priority for the government." "God help," he added, "if we have another attack."

Is our health care as secure today as it should be?

A record 46 million Americans are uninsured - 5 million more since President Bush took office. Health care spending now consumes 16 percent of our nation's total economic output - a record. Health care costs are rising more than twice as fast as inflation, and nearly three times faster than wages - and medical bills are the reason for half of all personal bankruptcies.

Is our economic security as strong as it should be?

Corporate profits are up dramatically, but real wages for American workers have declined for four years in a row. The average monthly employment growth in America since 2001 has averaged just one-seventh of the average monthly jobs gain between 1945 and 2000. And that was before Ford Motor Company announced this week that it is cutting 30,000 jobs.

People are putting in a lifetime on jobs -- then losing their pensions to mergers, bankruptcies and corporate sleight of hand.

Energy costs are skyrocketing.

The president says this economic recovery is strong. Yet the number of Americans - and the number of American children --- living in poverty has increased every year for the past four years.

And America is $2 trillion deeper in debt. Our government has borrowed more money from foreign creditors under George W. Bush than all of our previous presidents combined. We're mortgaging our children's future to China, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

This Administration must know the challenges facing America. But their priorities are much different. Along with Republican leaders in Congress, they have used their one-party control to reward their friends and contributors and advance their narrow political agenda. Too often, they have treated America's urgent security challenges not as problems to be solved, but as opportunities for special interests.

The new Medicare prescription drug fiasco is one example. It's called Medicare Part D. And apparently, "D" stands for "disaster."

The Medicare prescription drug benefit was hailed as the crown jewel of the Republican health care reform agenda. Instead, it is a costly, complicated mess that wastes tens of billions of dollars in handouts to pharmaceutical and insurance companies - two of the most profitable industries in the world.

A month after the bill was passed, the Republican leader in charge of writing the legislation in the House began negotiating for a new job -- earning $2 million a year as the Washington point person for the pharmaceutical industry! Almost a dozen other high-placed government officials who helped push this disastrous prescription drug benefit through Congress also cashed in their chips for big jobs working for the pharmaceutical industry.

Is it any wonder that Americans are cynical about a Washington scene dominated by Jack Abramoff, the notorious K Street Project, and these revolving-door scandals?

If we are truly focused on ending the culture of corruption in Washington, our first bill in the House and the Senate should repair the glaring problems in the Medicare prescription drug program - not reward some new special interest group.

Next week, President Bush will speak to America about the state of our union, and the week after that he will send to Congress his proposed budget for the coming year. The President faces a choice. He can continue a tax policy which is unfair to working families and which rewards the wealthiest corporations and individuals. He can continue to protect his place in history as the first president to ever call for tax cuts in the middle of a war.

But how can he ask for so much sacrifice from our soldiers and their families - and so little from those of us who are safe at home? It's time for the President to change directions. It's time for the President to work with both parties in Congress to meet America's real security challenges - at home and around the world.

When it comes to national security, we know that asking questions is not what undermines our troops' morale What undermines troops' morale is being sent into war without a plan to win, and without adequate armor and equipment.

More than 550,000 US service members have served in Iraq. More than 16,400 have been wounded. More than 7,000 have suffered amputations, traumatic brain and spinal injuries; many of them will require a lifetime of care. And more than 2,200 of American service men and women have died in Iraq. They have given their lives.

Ninety of those fallen heroes were from my state of Illinois - from cities and towns like Albion and Aurora, Chicago, Rock Island, Crystal Lake, and Paris, Zion, Naperville, Bloomington, East Peoria, East Alton, and Woodlawn.

Our troops have done everything we have asked of them. We owe it to them, and to their families, to hold our government accountable for a real plan to succeed in Iraq.

Secretary Rumsfeld says we go to war with the Army we have. But three years into this war, it is inexcusable to still be sending troops to war without adequate body armor and equipment.

Seventy-nine Senators - Democrats and Republicans - have said 2006 must be a year of significant transition in Iraq. The President must make it clear to Iraqis, and the world, that America will not stay in Iraq indefinitely. Iraqis must assume responsibility for securing their own borders and protecting their own citizens.

On homeland security, the President tells us he cannot both lead the nation and follow the law.

Democrats have demonstrated time and again since 9/11 that we are prepared to work with this president to make America safe. But the president has the responsibility to come forward and tell us if laws need to be changed. Neither this president, nor any president, is above the law.

On health security, unfortunately, instead of learning from the mistakes with the Medicare drug disaster, the President seems determined to repeat them. He's pushing another special-interest project for insurers disguised as a plan for covering the uninsured. They're called "health savings accounts." They're a leftover political favorite from the Golden Age of Newt Gingrich, dreamed up by - who else - an insurance company.

One study of the President's health savings account proposal - by an M.I.T expert - concluded that it would actually increase the number of uninsured Americans by 350,000 - and cost taxpayers $25 billion. And, like the President's Social Security privatization scheme, HSAs leave people with more risk and even less security.

Democrats have better ideas:

To start with, we believe the law must be changed to allow the federal government to bargain for lower drug prices on behalf of seniors and people with disabilities.

In Illinois, thanks to the leadership of Governor Blagojevich, our state has made a commitment to provide basic health insurance for every child. Why won't Congress make that same commitment?

We can pass my Small Business Health Benefits Plan, to give employees of small businesses the same kinds of health care choices Congress has -- for much less than they pay now.

And Democrats support allowing people 55 and older to buy into Medicare.

After five years of closed-door deal-making, we hope the President will listen less to people who have written big checks to political campaigns - and more to the people who are working hard just to write the checks to pay their bills.

We hope to hear the President say he has a plan that will truly keep America safe and secure, at home and around the world. Democrats are ready to work with the President to pass that plan. Together, we can do better.

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