Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan Security and Reconstruction Act, 2004-Continued

EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN SECURITY AND RECONSTRUCTION ACT, 2004—CONTINUED

Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I come to the Senate in support of the Dorgan amendment to this supplemental appropriations. I come also having been the beneficiary of the week-long recess, traveling throughout my State talking to many people, hearing what is on their minds, trying to answer their questions and drawing some conclusions about where we stand in our country on the important issue concerning the mission in Iraq and the President's request for $87 billion. I talked with New Yorkers from Syracuse to Staten Island. At every stop, I had questions and concerns expressed about this request for $87 billion.

New Yorkers are concerned that this money is being asked for and will be spent with no real plan for how we move toward the goal in Iraq to create an independent, functioning government that is able to stabilize the situation there with adequate security, begin providing services to the Iraqi people, and move toward self-sufficiency.

I also was faced with many questions about how we intend to pay for our commitment to Iraq and to our military forces since we are faced with record deficits and increasing debt. Time and time again, I heard my constituents echo the concerns of the senior Senator from Florida, Mr. Graham, who pointed out eloquently in the Senate a short while ago how in effect we are asking our children and their generation to pay for the decisions we make today because we refuse to take responsibility for them.

This is a difficult situation to describe and explain to my constituents. I am asked how we can ask our taxpayers to contribute over $20 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq when that was never presented to the American public or even to the Congress. Time and time again the Congress was told by administration officials that it would not cost very much money, it would not take very long, and besides, we could expect Iraqi oil revenues to pay for Iraqi reconstruction, and other nations would join us in shouldering the burden.

Now, of course, we are told by the administration not to expect very much from anyone else, and we cannot even look to the Iraqi oil revenues at some point in the future. We should not be asking anything of the Iraqi people and their soon-to-be new government with respect to the American taxpayers and to the sacrifice that our American men and women in uniform have made for Iraq's freedom.

The administration argues that this $20 billion must be given in grants and not loans. The logic escapes me. Part of this money will go to rebuild the oil industry of Iraq. There are estimates ranging from hundreds of billions of barrels of recoverable oil to a trillion. There is no doubt that if we get this oil industry up and going, Iraq stands to be one of the richest nations in the world. The per capita income can be expected to shoot past most of the rest of the inhabitants of this globe. And I am all for it. That is wonderful. But not at the expense of the American taxpayer and not at the expense of an increasing deficit and debt burden on our children.

I am wondering how we can justify putting money in a grant to rebuild an oil industry that will start producing revenues that will then be used in part to pay back nations in the gulf and in Europe and elsewhere who have lent tens of billions of dollars to the former regime to do things like build palaces. Those who worked with, collaborated with, and supported the Saddam Hussein regime could conceivably be paid back from the fruits of the labor of American taxpayers who have gotten the oil flowing again. I, for one, cannot explain that in any audience I find myself.

Some in the administration have argued our aid to Iraq is analogous to the Marshall plan. But, of course, we know it is not.

That is a good rhetorical point to make, but it is not historically accurate. The U.S. did provide funds to both allies and enemies after World War II based on a matching program of contributions from those nations. We did not offer reconstruction funds without qualification. We required a commitment for some contribution from the receiving nation.

I saw a list of talking points distributed by the administration, apparently out of the Pentagon, that listed all the reasons why loans were a bad idea: We would not want any other entity, such as the new Iraqi Government or the Coalition Provisional Authority, to be deciding where any of the money went; we would not want any, other than American, contractors to get any of the contracts; we would not want anybody to think we were in it just for the oil, which they might somehow believe if we had some responsible, mature relationship that expected some repayment.

I read those talking points. I looked at those arguments, and, frankly, they are not very convincing. I am still having trouble trying to figure out how we went from a position in the spring where administration official after administration official would not tell us how much it was going to cost, would not tell us how long it was going to take, would not tell us how long we were going to be there, and always reassured us that it was going to be paid for with the revenues from Iraqi oil once it began flowing, to where we cannot even ask for any kind of repayment.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has consumed the 8 minutes yielded to her.

Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional minute.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mrs. CLINTON. I strongly support the Dorgan amendment. I think it is the right thing for Iraq. I think it is the right thing for our country. It sets the right tone about how we are going to be dealing with this situation going forward. It lays down a marker that we are willing to shoulder this burden, but we expect at some point in the future for the American taxpayers of this or the next generation to be given some repayment opportunity from a new nation that we helped to create that, hopefully, will have the kind of future we are counting on and that many of us support.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.