Robert C. Byrd

Our Adjutant General, General Allen Tackett, needs help from the Pentagon, but he is not getting it.

Would you supply for the record how much we are paying other countries, and what countries and how much to each, to contribute troops to fighting in Afghanistan?

Does the United States pay other countries to contribute troops to fighting al-Qaeda?

I am just flat-out opposed to more authorities to the executive branch, in this administration, or in the previous one, or in the next one.

Are there any efforts underway to increase the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan?

We do not need another foreign aid budget, and we do not need another foreign relations department.

I think that on behalf of the people--it is their money.

I would not approve it this time. I would oppose it.

I am against it. I am for the legislative branch of government first, last, and all the time.

I firmly support the war in Afghanistan.

Leading up to the invasion of Iraq, the administration officials carefully fashioned an implied link between 9/11 and Iraq.

The administration has consistently used the specter of that tragedy to build momentum for its preemptive war in Iraq.

The American people are firmly behind that war.

I was 85 when I came into this hearing. I think I'm a little older now.

I want to protest, on behalf of my fellow Senators on this side and on behalf of myself, any markup of this bill as early as next Monday.

Well, let me implore that you wait until another day to have that markup.

Let me just make it clear for the record--my earlier question regarding limiting deployments was specifically applied to the National Guard and Reserve forces. I did not suggest ending deployments of all--underline 'all'--American troops.

Well, if the President's $87 billion request is approved, it is expected that the deficit for fiscal year 2004 could reach $535 billion.

Are you saying, Mr. Secretary, that the United States can handle the costs?

I never heard of such a plan until the day before yesterday.

Instead of spending billions on the war in Iraq, we could have used the money to shore up the Social Security and Medicare programs.

The increased deficits produce higher interest rates, the cost of a college education, for example, will grow.

I've heard from many families anxious to know when their deployed loved ones might return home.

Given the concerns that families of National Guard members have raised, would you support a policy of limiting overseas deployments for Guard and Reserve forces in terms both of the duration of overseas tours and the number of overseas…

Well, I think you have good reason to worry about it. Pulling their fair share gets harder and harder and harder, as their fair share becomes longer and longer and longer.