Political Quotes

“In April, almost every Member of the House, myself included, voted $60 billion for our effort in Iraq. Unfortunately, since April that $60 billion has simply not been used well. We failed to protect and supply our troops adequately. We hear stories. I met last week with 25 families of people who had loved ones in Iraq. We are not supplying them with safe drinking water. We are not supplying them with antibiotics. In some cases we are not supplying them with body armor, and we are told in committee that body armor will not be available for every one of our soldiers there until December. What was the administration thinking? We appropriated $60 billion. The administration has failed to submit any plan to the American people, to this Congress, to tell them how this is going to work, to tell all of us when there will be an exit strategy. This administration has failed to show any evidence that the United Nations is cooperating. We cannot get other governments, other countries to send money, to send troops, to send resources, and we failed in terms of accountability. Today, Mr. Chairman, we are spending about $1 billion a week in Iraq. Three hundred million of that billion dollars is going to private contractors, and most of those private contracts are unbid contracts.”