Brian Jones: “Last week in the House Armed Services Committee, we had a hearing on the budget for fiscal year 2016. Secretary of…”

“Last week in the House Armed Services Committee, we had a hearing on the budget for fiscal year 2016. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, both testified before the committee, and I have great respect for both of them. I asked them if, after a decade in Afghanistan, keeping troops in Afghanistan for 9 more years would even make a difference. Last year in his Politico article, ``Down the Opium Rathole,'' Roger Simon argues, ``If you spent 13 years pounding money down a rathole with little to show for it, you might wake up one morning and say: `Hey, I'm going to stop pounding money down this rathole.' . . . Unfortunately, the U.S. Government does not think this way. Even though our combat troops are leaving Afghanistan, our money will continue to flow there, billion after billion.'' Mr. Speaker, I submit this Politico article for the Record. [From Politico, Oct. 29, 2014] Down the Opium Rathole (By Roger Simon) If you spent 13 years pounding money down a rathole with little to show for it, you might wake up one morning and say: ``Hey, I'm going to stop pounding money down this rathole.'' Unfortunately, the U.S. government does not think this way. The U.S. government wakes up every morning and says: ``The rathole is looking a little empty today. Let's pound a few more billion dollars down there.'' And when that rathole is Afghanistan, the billions are essentially without end.…”