Political Quotes

“in the next day or two, the House and Senate will consider the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill. This is the fifth year of our war in Iraq. This is the seventh time the President has come to Congress for an emergency supplemental bill. In the ordinary course of events, a President and administration will submit to Congress an appropriation. We carefully review it, consider amendments, vote on it, and send it back to the President for signature. The exceptions to the rule I just gave are for emergency situations, unanticipated situations, such as natural disasters, situations that came upon us so quickly that we could not have anticipated them. But for 5 straight years now this administration has insisted that this ongoing war is an unanticipated expenditure. I wish that were true, but we have known now for more than 4 years that this war is costly; first, in terms of human life, and, second, in terms of the Treasury of this country. Despite that, the President continues to send us emergency bills, unanticipated appropriations. This time, almost $100 billion is to be added to the expenses of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The total cost to date is somewhere in the range of $500 billion. We have appropriated that money. We have given the President every penny he has asked for and more.”