Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan Security and Reconstruction Act, 2004

EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN SECURITY AND RECONSTRUCTION, 2004

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, if you study the sweep of history in the United States and the history of the Presidency, you understand that at times of crisis the President has an opportunity to rally the American people, to summon them to a higher calling and a greater commitment than they might otherwise reach. Time and again, each President faced with a national challenge has tried his best to do just that.

In this situation, after 9/11, President Bush came to us and summoned the American people to be unified. It was demonstrated in the Senate with a bipartisan resolution supporting our effort in the war on terrorism, an overwhelming vote supporting the President. He summoned us to humility. Many of us joined with the President at the National Cathedral in a day of prayer to recall just what had happened to so many innocent people and to once again remind ourselves of our dependence on our values and our principles and on God Himself.

He also summoned us to courage and the courage that America has to display every day in confronting the war on terrorism.

President Bush also has summoned us to sacrifice. But he has not summoned all of us to sacrifice. He has summoned the men and women in uniform to sacrifice because they literally put their lives on the line every single day in this war on terrorism, in the invasion of Iraq and in peacekeeping afterwards. He has asked these men and women to understand the oath they took to our country and to step forward proudly and defend our flag and our values. That call to sacrifice has been answered affirmatively over and over again while hundreds have been killed in Iraq and literally hundreds and perhaps thousands have been seriously injured.

When it comes to sacrifice otherwise, the President asks little or nothing of the rest of America. I believe if President Bush had come to America and said, I need a spirit of sacrifice from everyone—rich and poor alike, not just those in uniform but every single person—there would have been an overwhelmingly positive response. But no, instead of asking for sacrifice, the President said to the wealthiest in America, to those who are well off and have little discomfort in their lives: We ask nothing. In fact, we will give you something. We will give you a tax cut. We will give you money—not a sacrifice asked of the wealthy and well off but, frankly, to give them more comfort and luxury in their life. That is hardly what the President should have done in rallying America to face this crisis.

Here we stand today, facing the amendment of the Senator from Delaware, Mr. Biden, which asks us to look in honest terms at the $87 billion the President has asked for, for Iraq: $68 billion for the troops, another $20 billion for the reconstruction.

We know President Bush and his administration have had no plan when it comes to revitalizing the American economy.
This President has lost more American jobs on his watch than any President in 70 years. He has lost more jobs than any President since Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression. Frankly, that is a stain on his performance as President and reflects the fact that all of the tax cuts he has proposed have not revitalized this economy, have not moved us forward and, in fact, have cost us jobs.

It is clear, as well, this administration had no plan when it came to rebuilding Iraq. A few months ago, some of the leaders in this administration were coming forward and telling us we would not even need to be here today to ask for $87 billion.
Secretary Rumsfeld said: I don't expect that we are going to need to ask the taxpayers for money; look at all the oil revenue in Iraq. The same thing was said by Vice President Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz. All of the men behind the strategy to attack Iraq told us over and over again it was painless, it wouldn't cost us.

We are here today knowing it will cost us. The President told us in his speech to the American people just a few weeks ago: $87 billion is the cost. This administration had no plan to deal with it and no plan to pay for it.

How will we face this? We will face this as we faced the Vietnam war, a war which was financed by deficits. Instead of cutting spending or raising taxes to pay for the cost of Iraq, we are going to see the national debt increased. We are going to see the funds available for our schools, for health care, for Social Security cut because we have decided we are not going to ask anyone to sacrifice to pay this $87 billion.

I believe we have a responsibility to stand up and do the right thing, to ask the wealthiest in America to pay their fair share, to say to them: We are not going to give you a tax break that has been promised so the money will be there to pay for this war. It is the responsible thing to do. Instead of pushing this burden on the men and women in uniform fighting today and on our children tomorrow with an increased national debt, we are going to stand for the premise that we should pay for the defense of America; we should pay for the cost of reconstruction in Iraq.

I support the Biden amendment and urge my colleagues to do the same.