On the recordMay 17, 2012
I thank the gentleman. It is a failure when Congress will not allow debate on the most important issue in this bill, and that is the policy in Afghanistan. Congress has been failing the American people. We haven't paid for that war. We haven't even debated how to pay for that war. It's been on the credit card for 10 years--over a trillion dollars. And by refusing to allow us to debate the McGovern amendment, which is about the policy, we now won't even debate the policy. So we don't pay for it and we don't even debate the wisdom of the policy. That's a grave mistake. The reality is the war in Afghanistan is over. It's time for Congress to end it. The President has set a date: 2014. What's magic about that? The Afghans have to step up and assume responsibility for their future, and we have to have a debate as to whether or not we should bring those troops home sooner than 2014. We owe it to the American taxpayer; we owe it to the American men and women who are serving, and we owe it to our own responsibility to debate the important public issues of our time.
