Louise Slaughter: “Mr. Speaker, last spring we appropriated $79 billion, it was just this past spring, to fund the war on the…”

“Mr. Speaker, last spring we appropriated $79 billion, it was just this past spring, to fund the war on the reconstruction efforts in Iraq. And again the administration is asking us to open up the Federal purse and hand over billions more. The Federal Government is already facing record deficits, the highest deficits the country has ever faced. But the President now wants our permission to charge $18 billion more, which would have to be charged, by the way. We have no money to pay for that, pay for Iraqi reconstruction on the American credit card. What happened to the $79 billion that Congress handed to the administration? One might well ask. Why are American soldiers being sent into life-threatening situations without the body armor or adequate training? We do not know the answers to these questions, but we do know the conditions in Iraq for our military is shameful. I have received volumes of calls and letters from the families of soldiers serving in Iraq. They are concerned about their children, their brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration. We just heard that they are just now beginning to study the possible 12 suicides of our service people since they have been in Iraq. Some soldiers are rationed only two bottles of water a day despite the 120 degree weather, and we have been told that they have often had to survive on one meal a day.”