Marcy Kaptur: “tonight, several Members on the Republican side of the aisle gave 5-minute Special Orders on government waste, while…”

“tonight, several Members on the Republican side of the aisle gave 5-minute Special Orders on government waste, while today's New York Times talks about the war in Iraq and the difficulty that the Bush administration is facing in managing that war and in restoring Iraq's economy. Now, I do not think most Americans thought when we went into Iraq that we were supposed to restore the economy, but there has been a great deal of mission creep, obviously, and with no stability there and, with no security, investment does not happen. Of course, it is not a free-enterprise economy, and a lot of their former businesses and State-owned companies are in trouble. This particular article talks about a shoe company that would fashion leather and finish shoes. Thousands of people there are without work as a result of the war and the bad conditions. So the Bush administration is taking cash and paying over 2,000 workers in just that company; imagine how many companies there are in Iraq, just to kind of 'buy the peace' so that there is not more unrest. Meanwhile, here in Congress, about a week ago, we tried to get a bill passed that would give $1,500 to each of our soldiers' families who are in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Guess what? The very same Republican party that is handing out $100 bills in Iraq forced the defeat of that measure offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak) here in the House. Very interesting priorities, in my opinion, and absolutely wrong.”