Patrick Leahy: “in this discussion of earmarks, of course, the elephant in the room--and I do not necessarily mean that as a pun-- are…”

“in this discussion of earmarks, of course, the elephant in the room--and I do not necessarily mean that as a pun-- are the hundreds of billions of dollars of earmarks from the President of the United States: the blank check to the war in Iraq; the blank check to the people who are hired as contractors, various companies-- Halliburton is one that comes to mind, but many others, Blackwater and so on. These blank checks--nobody wants to talk about those. But every President--not just this President but every President--has hundreds of billions of dollars in earmarks in the bill. This President has had trillions of dollars. That is why this President, who inherited the largest surplus in the Nation's history, has turned it into the largest deficit in the Nation's history. And it is why? Because with the combination of his deficits and his war in Iraq, he is just paying the interest on the Bush administration's debt and the war--just the interest and the cost of the war. Every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year--366 in leap year--we spend $1 billion every single day--every single day--in interest and the war in Iraq. That is money that does not go to education, does not go to finding a cure for cancer or Alzheimer's or diabetes or AIDS. It is $1 billion a day that does not go to educate our children and our grandchildren. It is $1 billion a day that does not go to find a way to make sure our schools can start competing again with schools around the world.…”