30-Something Working Group

30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP -- (House of Representatives - September 25, 2006)

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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. So now what we have in summary is the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, who has signed off on this National Intelligence Estimate and said that he agrees with the conglomerate of intelligence agencies who have determined that we are worse off than we were before we entered Iraq and that Iraq has made us worse; and we have our 9/11 Commission chairs, the bipartisan 9/11 Commission chairs who on September 11 reissued their opinion, that they had issued a report card on their recommendations last December which included 10 C's, 12 D's and 4 F's. ``What we argued then,'' they said, ``is still true now. Americans are safer, but we are not yet safe.''

Well, that was the September 11 assessment. Now the National Intelligence Estimate indicates that, no, we are not safer. We were not safe and we are not safer.

Here are some of the items that the 9/11 Commission indicated that we should implement that have not been implemented in the 5 years since 9/11. Allocate funding on the basis of risks and vulnerabilities. We haven't done that. We have not created and rehearsed State and local emergency response plans. We have not turned over the broadcast frequencies to first responders now, like we should, instead of in 2009 when the plans are to do that. We have not shut down the turf battles, nor increased information sharing among government agencies.

The list goes on and on. There were dozens of recommendations that they made, the majority of which have not been implemented. Both the bipartisan co-chairs have come together repeatedly to say, why has this Congress not moved forward with the recommendations?

If we take control of this body, as we hope to on November 7, Mr. Speaker, we will implement the 9/11 recommendations, we will implement our Real Security Plan, we will commit to moving this country in a new direction, instead of continuing on the stay-the-course mentality.

We have got to make sure that we go in the direction that the American people have called for, which is to make sure that we aren't interminably mired in the chaos in Iraq; that every single day we don't see more and more of our young men and women killed by suicide bombers and by accidents and by deliberate bombings. All for what? That is what I think the vast majority of Americans are asking themselves every single day, is why are we there? What are we fighting for? Is it worth it?

That is why poll after after poll comes back where Americans say they don't think the Iraq war was worth it. They certainly wanted us to go into Afghanistan. They certainly wanted us to go in and finish the job there, to hunt Osama bin Laden down and find him. But we don't even have enough troops on the ground in Afghanistan right now to get that done. That just isn't even possible at this point.

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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Meek, the sergeant major you are referring to generally, that is the guy you will never see under the direction and control of this institution because they, ``they'' being our Republican colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Mr. Delahunt, they don't like the truth staring them in the face. Because the facts, when they are opposite the facts, the facts really lay out just what a mess we are in.

What they need to do is what they do every single day that I have been here as a Member of this body, and that is repeat what they would like to be true over and over and over again. Like you said, force our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to rubber stamp whatever it is they do.

Then when they don't automatically rubber stamp whatever it is they do, when that board lights up with the red and the green and the yes and the no, it looks like a Christmas tree, we get Christmas every other month. Whenever there is a tough vote, the arm twisters come out, the arms are wrenched behind their back and conviction gets checked at that Chamber door right there, because when you are elected to Congress as a Republican, apparently you are expected to check your opinions and your principles at the Chamber door and do whatever it is that the leadership is telling you you are going to do and you came here to do. Never mind the folks back home. Never mind going in the direction that the people of this country want to go in. Never mind that we are mired in a chaotic war in Iraq, that gas prices are astronomically high, that we are in a financial situation economically that doesn't allow us to really make the expenditures that we should because we have a deficit that is out of control, because we have a foreign debt that is more than all 42 presidents combined, as you have outlined so eloquently night after night.

Yet in 42 days, Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity to make a difference. We have an opportunity to move this country in a new direction, to implement the New Direction Agenda, to implement the Real Security agenda, to implement an agenda that is going to once again reflect the values and principles and ideals of working families in America, and not just for the select few, and to elect some Members of Congress who will throw away that rubber stamp.

You often talk about how on November 8 we are going to come back up here and have a rubber stamp burning party. I look forward to the bonfire, Mr. Speaker.

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