Political Quotes

“there are legitimate and important emergency funding needs for the troops and our Federal civilian corps on the ground in Iraq and elsewhere. The President requested $93.4 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations to continue the fight against terrorism, and that is what we should be doing. Unfortunately, this bill offers, I think, a way of not doing that in an appropriate way. It is bloated with $124.3 billion in spending, $21 billion over what was requested. It is true we have provided funding for emergency supplementals before, but it would be hard pressed to convince the American people that $25 million for spinach producers, which may be important to do, but in the regular order; $74 million for peanut storage may be appropriate, but in regular order. It should not be done here. At the same time it does that, it restricts the civilian spending for the provincial reconstruction teams, which helps us do some of the civilian things that we should be doing in Iraq. The larger issue, however, is this legislation before us has become a vehicle, unfortunately, for polarization on the fight to stabilize Iraq. I have been there three times. I believe tying the hands of our military commanders to adapt to the changing circumstances can only hurt our mission and our troops.”