Tim Ryan: “we are moving swiftly into the Iraq Watch time, and many other Members will be down here shortly to talk about a couple…”

“we are moving swiftly into the Iraq Watch time, and many other Members will be down here shortly to talk about a couple of different issues, one would be the issue of Iraq that has been going on for some time in a working group here. Congress has been talking about this issue over and over and trying to bring some awareness and some clarity to many of the people of this country who are very concerned with what is going on in Iraq. I would also like to, since we claimed the time here, I would also like to talk a little bit about the veterans and a little bit about what is going on here with the budget. As we just talked about, and as the gentleman from New York articulated and the gentleman from Florida articulated as well, there is some real pressure being put on the budget here in the United States Congress, and I did mention it towards the end. One of the programs that is going to take a real beating here in the 2005 budget is going to be the issue of veterans. Now, the President has made a formal request of this body for another $80 billion to help fund the Iraq war, and this will take the grand total over $300 billion that we will spend on the Iraq war. And that is just today. That is up to this point. This $80 billion may get us through the year, but some analysts say it may not. We are going to be over $300 billion in what we have spent in Iraq. Now, there is nobody in this Chamber who will not support the troops, who need our support.…”