Thomas Massie: “You know, in Congress, we often make the mistake of confusing activity with progress. And no doubt there has been a lot…”

“You know, in Congress, we often make the mistake of confusing activity with progress. And no doubt there has been a lot of activity--and the goals are noble--to cut off the funding for the Taliban. This is a source of income, opium production. And the activity has been there. We have spent $8 billion. The problem is they have doubled their production. Ironically, we have helped them with irrigation and better roads, their infrastructure. Something we are doing over there isn't working, unless our goal is to increase their profits, because they have tripled the acreage that they are growing of poppy fields over there. So we need to do something differently. What we are doing is not working. And throwing money at the problem will not solve it. What I am proposing today is to stop the war on drugs there. It has been ineffective. I would also remind folks--I probably don't need to remind any of my colleagues, there is a heroin epidemic here in the United States, and it is terrible in my district. My constituents are asking me, why are we throwing the money away in Afghanistan when we have the problems here? In Afghanistan, when we see no positive results--we see negative results--why don't we, instead, use that money to secure our border and prevent the influx of opium and heroin?…”