Political Quotes

“I want to explain these amendments today during general debate, so I appreciate the time because I think this is important for the public to know that there is a $5 billion Pentagon war slush fund just sitting over there. So I want to offer an amendment to take that war slush fund, $5 billion, and apply it to deficit reduction. Especially in this time of deficits and a struggling economy, I hope we can all agree that we should not be handing the Pentagon a $5 billion blank check for a war slush fund that has little accountability and runs counter to our constitutional duty to control the purse strings through this Congress. We also cannot forget about the 45,000 troops in Iraq. I will be offering an amendment to ensure that all of them are brought home at the end of the year as agreed to in our Status of Forces Agreement. My friend and colleague from Illinois, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, and myself will offer an amendment to simply require the Department of Defense to provide audit-ready financial statements. That's a pretty simple request, I would think. Now, this $648 billion budget is $17 billion above last year's budget. It could be cut at least by $75 billion to $100 billion without, mind you, jeopardizing our troops or our national security.…”