Political Quotes

“$793 million for health care facility construction and medical equipment replacement throughout Iraq. Yet there has been a $94 million cut to community access programs here in the United States, a 90 percent cut in that budget. Mr. Speaker, $28 million in Iraq for operation and staffing of 150 clinics for 3 million Iraqis. Yet there has been a 78 percent cut, that is $789 million in all health activities to provide health care access in rural America. Mr. Speaker, I did not get to it, but let me continue. The agricultural Secretary, Ann Veneman, was in Iraq on November 13, 2003, praising our investment, she calls it how our government can help. Need I remind her, it is our taxpayers, not our government. But yet, in the President's budget, $198 million has been cut from USDA farm loans, crop insurance, disaster relief, and field offices, representing about a 4 to 5 percent cut in the agriculture budget. There have been a total of 6 cabinet Secretaries who have visited Iraq. Do my colleagues get a feeling that the cabinet Secretaries have been outsourced to Iraq in the many ways that our jobs have been outsourced to India? They are focused.”