Barney Frank: “I yield myself 2 minutes to say I am struck by the incongruity of Members who have voted for the war in Iraq, a…”

“I yield myself 2 minutes to say I am struck by the incongruity of Members who have voted for the war in Iraq, a trillion-dollar huge mistake, ongoing, who vote to continue what seems to me a futile effort now in Afghanistan. The gentleman from Alabama, and we've talked about this before, he said that because the Obama administration told him he had to, he voted to send $150 million a year last year, next year, for the next 2 years to the cotton farmers of Brazil. The gentleman opposed a $250,000 limit on subsidies to any individual farmer. In the budget, the gentleman voted, as did most on his side, to send $1.2 billion to beef up Iraqi security forces. What about American security forces? What about giving some money to the cities so when they have to deal with abandoned property, they don't have to take that out of the hides of their police departments and fire departments? Yes, we should reduce the deficit. But to be for the enormous waste in the Pentagon--and, by the way, Members cite Mike Mullen. I wish, in addition to citing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they would make a simple commitment not to vote for the Pentagon money he doesn't want. Because Members on that side cite his warning about the defense budget, about the deficit, and then force money on him that he thinks is useless. So let's talk about the disparity between people who vote enormous amounts of money; $400 million goes to Afghan infrastructure, we're told.…”