Frank Pallone: “I am so glad the gentleman is bringing this up. The gentleman spoke about the budget at the beginning, and it goes back…”

“I am so glad the gentleman is bringing this up. The gentleman spoke about the budget at the beginning, and it goes back to the fact that this administration continues to try to hide the cost or reduce or suggest that the cost of the war is less than it is. I am sure that has something to do with it. The President's budget did not even include the funding for the war in Iraq. I know the Democratic budget, the alternative, certainly does; and I am not sure what the Republican budget that we will vote on tomorrow has, but when President Bush presented his budget in February, he did not include the cost of the war. What we see is this administration constantly tries to downplay the cost, cut corners in terms of paying for what is necessary for the war in the same way that they are not paying for the veterans health care. It is an effort again to try to hide what is really going on, not only in terms of how we got there, but also the costs, and what the long-term costs are going to be.”