Jon L. Christensen: “since the beginning of the Iraq war, House Republicans have rubber-stamped every war supplemental the President has sent…”

“since the beginning of the Iraq war, House Republicans have rubber-stamped every war supplemental the President has sent to Congress with very few questions about how the money is being spent. House Democrats have repeatedly tried to get Republicans to join us in supporting the creation of a select committee to investigate government contracting. The committee would be similar to the Truman Committee during World War II, which, under Democratic Senator Harry Truman's leadership, held hundreds of hearings and fact-finding missions into contracts approved by the Democratic Roosevelt administration. Truman did not see this as a partisan issue, and said, unlike Republicans today, he took his oversight responsibilities seriously. The Truman investigation saved the American taxpayer an estimated $15 billion. Just think how much money we could save the American taxpayer today. Under Halliburton's two largest Iraq contracts, Pentagon auditors found $1 billion in questioned costs and $400 million in unsupported costs, and these discoveries are from Pentagon auditors. Just think what we could discover from a real congressional investigation. It is time for the Republican rubber-stamping to end. ____________________”