Joe Donnelly: “it was interesting over Memorial Day weekend, I was back home and went to a Memorial Day service in Rolling Prairie…”

“it was interesting over Memorial Day weekend, I was back home and went to a Memorial Day service in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, which is in LaPorte County, a beautiful county right next door to where I live, and some of the World War II veterans said to me, ``You know, Joe, when we went to war, everyone sacrificed. We were all in this together.'' Then I was fortunate enough a few days later to read a book called ``The Price of Liberty'' by Robert Hormats. This book explained a simple factor, that in this war we have been asked to go shopping, while the military sacrifices every day and their families sacrifice every day. Mr. Speaker, what was pointed out in the book is that this is the first war in history where at a time we were going to war, we also decided to cut taxes and increase other spending, and this formula has resulted in explosive deficits. My good friend from Arkansas, next to him is a poster detailing the cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom, close to $400 million, heading to $500 billion. When this was first discussed, the Office of Management and Budget some years ago said the top cost we would have was $50 billion to $60 billion. We were told, my dear friend from Arkansas, that the oil revenues would cover all the costs. Look where we are some years later. There has been an air of unreality from the start in facing up to the fact that, in the past, all Americans sacrificed together.”