Donald M. Payne: “last year, I led the opposition to a pre-emptive war in Iraq--which, according to testimony given this week by former…”

“last year, I led the opposition to a pre-emptive war in Iraq--which, according to testimony given this week by former top U.S. Weapons Inspector David Kay, wasn't even pre-emptive. If Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction program, what potential harm were we pre-empting? President Bush has led our country further and further away from the fold of the international community, ignoring the United Nations Security council's findings, and virtually demolishing the international support we had received following September 11th. He has challenged Americans to a ``you're either with us or against us'' agenda, which leads to the most dangerous kind of patriotism--where questioning and dissent are considered un-American. Well I, as an American and a patriot, am now standing again to ask questions about the cost of this war. We spent $396 billion in military spending alone for 2003. As big as this number is, it does not even include the cost of the Iraq war, which was funded through two additional supplemental requests; the first for $79 billion, the second was another $87 billion. Together, that amounts an amazing $562 billion. For 2003, that amounts to almost $11 billion dollars spent ever week, and more than $1.5 billion spent every day. Compare that to this year's Department of Education budget of $54 billion, which works out to less than 150 million dollars per day, which averages out to less than $3 million per day in education spending in each state.”