Arlen Specter: “I spoke yesterday on the floor and also in the Appropriations Committee in support of having the $20 billion which the…”

“I spoke yesterday on the floor and also in the Appropriations Committee in support of having the $20 billion which the administration has asked for the reconstruction of Iraq to be in the form of loans or loan guarantees instead of grants. I have made that suggestion in an effort to be helpful to the administration. I analogize the situation in Iraq to a company, an enterprise, an entity in bankruptcy. Iraq is supposed to have some $200 billion in obligations. By analogy to a bankruptcy proceeding, those obligations are to be discharged. General creditors come last in line and, in the absence of any assets, they receive nothing. The situation for the United States in advancing funds for the reconstruction of Iraq, it seems to me, ought to be in loans or loan guarantees because Iraq has substantial potential for its oil revenues, sitting on the second largest pool of oil in the world. I reject the contention that this would discourage other donor nations from helping Iraq.”