Steve Cohen: “That is just better, because this amendment is kind of a compromise between the amendment Mr. Walberg and I had and Mr.…”

“That is just better, because this amendment is kind of a compromise between the amendment Mr. Walberg and I had and Mr. Cicilline's. Mr. Cicilline's cut the fund entirely. This cuts it in half. A little more than half is really better. The fact is, yes, we need the infrastructure in America; but we spent a lot of money on the infrastructure fund in Iraq, and we know from experience that a lot of that money, if not most of it, was stolen and wasted. The same things happened in Afghanistan. The Inspector General has reported it; and, in fact, Afghani officials have reported it. They do not have the expertise, nor do they have the abilities, to maintain products after they are built. When the roads are constructed, they can't maintain them. So it is throwing money away. The same thing happened with air-conditioners and other products that we gave the Iraqis and we have given the Afghanis. They cannot maintain them. They can't maintain them when they do construct them, but before that half of it is ripped off and graft. There are rankings of the most corrupt countries on the face of the Earth. Afghanistan is always number one or number two, and continues to be. No matter how long we stay there and how long we have been there, the level of corruption has remained right at the top. That is not going to change. Giving this money away is basically encouraging and endorsing and seconding corruption and graft that we have seen in Afghanistan over the years, and waste.…”