USA Patriot Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act of 2006

USA PATRIOT ACT ADDITIONAL REAUTHORIZING AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2006--Continued

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BUDGET PRIORITIES

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, as we return from the President's Day recess, the Senate will be debating the future direction of our country.

This debate will come in the form of the discussions we have on the Federal Government's budget.

A budget is a statement of our priorities. Families across our country make difficult decisions every day while living within their own budgets, choosing one priority over another and working hard to fulfill their own American dream.

Likewise, our national budget and the way we spend tax dollars reflects our priorities as a Nation. We make difficult choices, establish priorities and try to set our Nation on a course to prosperity.

Unfortunately, the President's recent submission of his fiscal year 2007 budget and subsequent request for supplemental appropriations for the ongoing war in Iraq do not reflect the priorities our Nation needs to move ahead, and it makes the wrong choices in spending and saving.

Taken together, they represent a callous disregard for fiscal reality and a failure to prioritize our country's most important needs.

No American family would dare manage their finances this way, and I am on the floor today to say that we must take a different course.

In the 3 years since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, our country and Congress have stood with the President in staunch support of our troops.

While we are both proud and duty-bound to provide the resources our men and women in uniform need to do their jobs safely and effectively, it is disingenuous to continue to ask for ``emergency'' spending to pay for military action that has been ongoing for years.

Year in and year out, the President asks the Congress to provide the resources for his Iraq policy outside the bounds of the traditional budget process, and in each one of those years, concerns over accountability swell and demands for a plan that will allow our troops to fulfill their mission and return home go unanswered.

Like every American, we all want to succeed in our mission in Iraq. We want to achieve our military and policy goals, and to bring our troops home safely.

We know that this will require sacrifice and that a U.S. presence will be required for some period of time.

Despite these obvious facts, the administration continues to operate from the pretense that the cost of this ongoing war is unknowable and thus requires emergency spending.

The continued adherence to this policy deliberately misleads the American people about the cost of this war.

But it also misses a central point, the real emergency is here at home in our classrooms, in communities from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Northwest, in our hospitals, and in our firehouses.

The Senate has shown unwavering support for our men and women fighting overseas. These heroes deserve every bit of aid we can provide--be it the best body armor, the best equipment, or the best pay and health care.

Time and again Democrats have stood shoulder to shoulder with the Bush administration to do just that--and in many cases we have pushed to provide more than the President requested for our troops, our veterans, and their families.

My concern--and I know many of my colleagues share it as well--is that while we provide the best for our men

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and women overseas, we are doing far less for the men, women and children fighting to get ahead on our own shores.

They too deserve the best--the best education, the best health care, and the best protection from terrorist attack. I don't think anyone in this Chamber today can honestly say that we are achieving that goal.

I am here to say that this Senator will not stand idly by as we send billions to support and protect the heroes overseas while cutting basic needs for the heroes waking up every morning across our great Nation trying to provide themselves and their children a better life. We can and must do both.

So, as the Senate prepares to consider the budget and support our troops, I am going to ask that we stand up to protect and support hard working American families right here at home. That means: Providing affordable, accessible health care for every American, ensuring the best education for our young people, taking care of our veterans when they return home, pointing our Nation down a path toward energy, independence, and protecting our homeland from both terrorists and natural disasters.

The costs of mismanagement, corruption, and lack of investment at home are creating a crisis of confidence in our current path among the American people. We must change course.

There is precedent in our Nation's history for future oriented investment during difficult times--in fact, troubled times demand that we don't just wallow in current events, but better prepare for our future.

In 1862, our great Country was torn apart. The Civil War defined our Nation and determined our future. But war was not the only thing that was debated that year, and war was not the only thing that determined our Nation's fate: 1862 was also the year that legislation creating the land-grant college system was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Lincoln.

Think of it, in the midst of war, when the Union's very existence was in question, our leaders took the forward looking step of establishing a path by which average Americans could improve themselves and contribute to the welfare of our Nation. And you know what--it worked.

Today, those same land-grant colleges and universities are the envy of the world because of the great education they provide many Americans and the economic benefit they provide to our country.

Today, we too, are in the grip of war, and there are forces arrayed against us that seek to do us real and lasting harm--we must combat our enemies with every ounce of energy we have.

But like previous generations of American leaders, we also have an obligation to prepare the American people for the challenges we will confront in the future and to ensure that we are strong and secure in meeting those challenges head-on. Today, our efforts in this regard are woefully inadequate.

To be strong in the future--to have the ability to fight the wars of the future, create the economy of the future, and lead the world in human liberty and freedom--we must create an environment of hope and opportunity here at home. And yes, this is an emergency.

We all support our troops, and we will support the President's efforts to provide for their well-being and to ensure that they have the tools and resources they need to carry out their missions.

But, candidly, we must be able to both support our troops and create a country full of hope and optimism for them to return to.

To accomplish this we need to make changes in policy and allocation of resources, and I am going to demand that we consider these important questions when we debate the budget and the Iraq war supplemental appropriations request.

As I have said before on this floor, the Federal budget is the statement of our priorities as a people, and it should be a moral, thoughtful document.

Today, America's need for sound fiscal policy and a solid commitment to prosperity at home is not being met.

We can do better. If the President and the majority won't lead our country toward a more hopeful, prosperous future, then we will.

Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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