David Obey: “Mr. Speaker, we are about to go to conference on a bill which spends $87 billion. It is the second installment of what…”

“Mr. Speaker, we are about to go to conference on a bill which spends $87 billion. It is the second installment of what will be many installment payments to deal with the consequences of the war in Iraq. This motion to instruct attempts to put the House on record in favor of three provisions which the Senate passed earlier last week. First, with respect to the issue of loans versus grants, this motion would provide that after $5.1 billion is set aside for military and security operations, and after $5.1 billion is set aside for Ambassador Bremer to deal with other costs associated with the effort in Iraq, that the remaining $10 billion of the reconstruction portion of the package be provided in the form of a loan, unless the President certifies that 90 percent of the bilateral debt owed by Iraq to other countries is forgiven. The purpose of this first provision is to recognize that, over the next 5 years, the per capita foreign debt of the United States will be larger than is the per capita debt of Iraq, and since foreign debts can only be paid off by a country running trade surpluses, that means that, in effect, over the next 5 years Iraq will be in a better position to repay their foreign debts than we will be.”