On the recordJune 18, 2014
I just wanted to come today and add my voice and my constituents' voice to the situation in Iraq. I wanted to voice my strong opposition to any further United States military intervention in Iraq. I don't think we should be sending our men and women back to Iraq or to engage in air strikes. I don't believe that this is the right course of action. Our Nation's military involvement in Iraq, I think, needs to be over. The United States has already spent trillions of dollars in Iraq while, here at home, our economy is still suffering. Our schools are going without needed funding. Families in my district are struggling to find jobs, to put food on the table, and our own infrastructure is crumbling. My colleague earlier, on the other side of the aisle, talked about Esther and her great line of ``for such a time as this,'' which is something I actually try to live by, but I don't believe that this is the time to go back and fight a war that I don't believe is ours. I believe it is the time for America to focus our resources here at home. We can't afford to spend millions of dollars on this military action when our schools are failing, one in five children lives in poverty in the United States, and so many of our veterans are not being taken care of when they come home. I don't sit on the Committees of Armed Services, of Foreign Affairs. I am not on the Intelligence Committee. I sit on the Small Business Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.…
