Elizabeth Furse: “I have brought here a chart that shows what we do with the money that the Congress has discretion over and over half the…”

“I have brought here a chart that shows what we do with the money that the Congress has discretion over and over half the red part is Pentagon spending. The other part is everything else, education, income security, health, environment. The House Committee on National Security has increased defense spending this year by $12.9 billion more than the President requested and more than the Pentagon even asked for. Republican and Democrat Members went to the Rules Committee with 5 different amendments to cut some Pentagon spending, from $1 to $13 billion, in between. We were not allowed to bring those to the floor and the leadership refused to allow us to discuss this most vital issue. What does it mean when we increase Pentagon spending by $13 billion? It means that we have to cut everything else, all these other things. Cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts. What does that mean to the American people? It means that we are putting our citizens' security in jeopardy. How? For instance, in the State of Oregon that I represent a district in, last year 38 children died from child abuse or neglect. One of the reasons they died was there were no shelters there for their mother to bring those children into a safe, secure home. Why is there no money for shelters? Because we are spending all our additional money on huge weapons systems that we really do not need now that the cold war is over. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the time has finally come when we must put common sense back in the U.S.…”