Financial Services And General Government Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (Extensions of Remarks - July 10, 2007)

* Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, a funny thing happened during a routine security check on classified information in the Executive Branch. It was blocked by the Vice President of the United States. The fact that the Vice President refused to comply with a security requirement imposed by the President is deeply disturbing. However, what is more chilling is the fact is that he defended his action by maintaining that he is not really within the Executive branch and hence, not within the reach of the Executive Order. In classrooms throughout our country students are rightly taught that the American Constitution establishes three branches of government--the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial. Despite his best efforts, there is no ``Dick Cheney'' branch of government.

* So, I rise today in support of Mr. Emanuel's amendment to strip the funding for the Vice President's office within the executive branch based upon his assertion that it does not in fact exist. The Vice President's position that he is outside of the reach of the Executive Order adds another act in the Cheney Theater of the Absurd. The Vice President seems to believe that for every rule there is a ``Cheney exception''. He doesn't want to be bound by the same rules that apply to everyone else.

* As highlighted by the ongoing Washington Post series on the Vice President, his worldview has infected the policies and practices of the entire Bush Administration. As a Federal Appeals Court noted, the Administration's attempt orchestrated by Mr. Cheney to rewrite the Clean Air Act could be valid ``only in a Humpty-Dumpty world'' where everything is upside down. Nowhere has the Cheney approach had more impact and created more damage than in the area of national security policy. His blatant misrepresentation about the situation in Iraq before and during the war have weakened our national security and diminished our credibility around the world. After all it was DICK CHENEY who said: ``Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.'' This statement we now know to be wrong.

* Regarding Sadam Hussein's connections with Al Qaeda, despite repeated findings to the contrary by Executive branch agencies, bipartisan Congressional Committee and the Baker Hamilton Commission that there is no evidence of collaboration between Al Qaeda and Sadam Hussein, the Vice President continues to repeat the erroneous claim.

* Once the war started he was equally wrong in his assessment of the war claiming two years ago that the Iraqi insurgency was in its ``last throws''.

* Following a report in January of this year where the President finally acknowledged deep troubles in Iraq, the Vice President indicated that the Administration has achieved ``enormous successes'' in Iraq and declared that critics and the media ``are eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure.''

* Regarding the conditions for detaining the Bush Administration's ``enemy combatants'' at Guantanamo Bay the Vice President said: ``They got a brand new facility down at Guantanamo. We spent a lot of money to build it. They're very well treated down there. They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want.''

* It has been difficult to determine which of the Vice President's unique traits epitomizes his arrogance of power more, his belief that he is above the law or his complete and utter disregard for the facts. This week however, a more disturbing tendency has emerged, his complete abandonment of reality.

* Still if the Vice President insists that he is not a part of the Executive Branch then his office in the Executive Branch must be unnecessary and is no longer in need of funding.

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