Mr. President, I appreciate the help of the Senator from Alabama on the patent bill which passed last night. It will help us increase jobs without adding anything to the deficit. We made what I think was a terrible mistake when the Congress voted to support going to war in Iraq--I was one of the 22 who voted against that war--and then voted to cut taxes and borrow the money to pay for the war in Iraq. We borrowed $1 trillion to pay for a war that has not made us safer. It has caused thousands of deaths of Americans and tens of thousands of others, and has degraded our military which will cost billions to rebuild. We also went into Afghanistan with the intent to catch Osama bin Laden, and when, according to accounts, he was surrounded, our personnel were yanked out of Afghanistan and sent to Iraq, and he escaped into Pakistan, and $1 trillion later, we are still there. Again, borrowed money for those two wars, one that went way beyond whatever it was supposed to and the other one that should never have happened in the first place. We also cut taxes on oil companies and millionaires and everybody else. And now we have a skyrocketing deficit, thanks to those mistakes. Later today we will vote on H.R. 1, the House Continuing Resolution, and then the Senate substitute. I want to speak briefly about how the Senate CR compares to H.R. 1, particularly funding for the Department of State and Foreign Operations.…
Share & report
More from Patrick Leahy
Mr. President, a person wandering up Church Street or jogging down on the shores of Lake Champlain on a crisp, snowy day in Burlington, VT, this past winter could have glanced up at the sky and seen an angular, white aircraft gliding…
Madam President, this is a good bill. It is a bill that reflects American priorities and invests in future prosperity and our health. It reduces everyday costs for millions of Americans, such as childcare, a college education, and heating…
Madam President, I thank the senior Senator from Washington, and I echo the call for HHS and SAMHSA to prevent significant funding cliffs. The State Opioid Response grant program must facilitate the ongoing work States are performing to…
Mr. President, today is a historic day. Today, each Member of the Senate will have the opportunity to cast a vote on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. I say ``historic''…





