On the recordJune 10, 2014
Yesterday, along with other Members of Congress, I attended a classified briefing on the swap of our soldier for the five Taliban leaders. I won't go into that, but I did have an opportunity to make a comment to the presenters. I made a comment regarding my concern about the bilateral strategic agreement, known as BSA, and the fact that we continue to spend money in Afghanistan that we borrow from foreign nations. Mr. Speaker, beside me today, I have a cartoon that was created by Mr. Milt Priggee, and it makes a point very well. It has Uncle Sam pointing out saying: I want you. Then the language beside it says: To understand that if you can't afford to take care of your veterans, you can't afford to go to war. Well, that makes my point very well because we seem to find all the money we need for Afghanistan to waste, and we know that waste, fraud, and abuse is worse today than it has ever been in the 12 years we have been in Afghanistan. I would like to quote from the Daily Journal Online. The title is, ``No end for Afghanistan's war on the U.S. taxpayer.'' I want to read two paragraphs from this online article: John Sopko, the inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), may have taken Uncle Sam and shaken him by the lapels last month, but the media missed it. In short, Afghanistan is on life support, and Joe Citizen is its permanent IV. From your pockets, Uncle Sam has taken $103 billion to build Afghanistan so far.…
