Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, first let me just thank my colleagues, Congressman Jones, Congressman McDermott, Congressman Ellison and others, for speaking out this morning clearly, saying that it's past time to bring the war in Afghanistan to a swift and orderly end. There's no military solution in Afghanistan. We need to bring our troops home now, and we need to make sure that we leave no permanent military bases. The American people are sick and tired of the past decade of war, and they want this war to end. At a time when tens of millions of Americans are unemployed and nearly 50 million Americans are living in poverty, the Pentagon is requesting almost $100 billion in the President's budget to fund Overseas Contingency Operations, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. {time} 1100 First of all, we all thought the war in Iraq was really supposed to be over. So why in the world are we spending billions of dollars on a war that we are no longer fighting? Mr. Speaker, we've already spent over $1.3 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we cannot afford to blindly continue down this path. The reason, of course, that I voted against that original resolution in 2001 authorizing the use of military force was because it was a blank check for war against any nation, anywhere, anytime, any organization, and any individual.…”