Help America to Vote Act

HELP AMERICA TO VOTE ACT

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I wonder if Senator Nickles, before he yields the floor, would just discuss this with me
and answer a couple of questions.

Mr. NICKLES. I would be happy to.

Mr. DOMENICI. As the Senator spoke, it dawned on me that none of this debt would be worth 2 cents if the United States had not done what we did.

Mr. NICKLES. The Senator is correct.

Mr. DOMENICI. Where would they get the money, if the United States were not involved in having invaded Iraq, trying to free them and then trying to put their economy back? This debt here would not be worth the matches that it would take to burn it.

So I don't think you are just offering a resolution giving some kindly advice. It seems to me you are expressing a reality that these countries ought to be very serious before they try to extract from new Iraq, old Iraq's debt when it would be absolutely useless, based upon the country they lent the money to, and the dictator to whom they lent the money. Right?

Mr. NICKLES. To respond to the statement of my friend and colleague, he is exactly right. If one were trying to take this debt or paper on the international market prior to the U.S. liberation of Iraq, it would be worthless because no payments were made on it before. I think it was generally assumed no payments would be made by the Saddam Hussein regime. My colleague from New Mexico is exactly correct.

Mr. DOMENICI. So the point of it is that whatever they are having this debtor's conference for, people ought to be thinking about what they are going to be discussing and we ought to be thinking about how we are going to respond.

You are offering some kind advice to us, what we ought to be saying, right? We ought to be thinking: Well, how long has it been since we have been involved in trying to make this country have some money and have it worthwhile? How many billions have we spent? And that I am for. How many more are we going to spend? And they would have the audacity to come to some kind of conference and say, put us on this debtors list; we will take 50 cents on a dollar. Yes, 50 cents on the dollar maybe 30 years from now, or 50, when everything that has gone into making this country alive again has been taken care of.

There are a lot of messages from this simple resolution to these countries. In simplest terms: Forget about it. But in more sophisticated terms, the truth is, but for America, what you got is worth nothing. That is what I think is important about the resolution. I think, rather than just being a typical one that we offer as a resolution, I think it is a very important sense of those of us who are sharing, with very few countries, the burden of trying to help that country.

Look at all those countries. Where have they been when we have been going through all this? They have been offering nice words, maybe; call the President and say hello. Maybe they have been sending a little postcard. They haven't put up anything yet. Some of them are thinking about it. I hope they keep thinking.

Mr. NICKLES. I appreciate that.

You mentioned a couple of these countries. Saudi Arabia has the largest, according to CRS estimates it is $25 billion. They say Kuwait may have $17 billion to $27 billion of Iraqi debt. They are Iraq's neighbors. Our liberation of Iraq eliminates a threat to them. I believe most of that money was lent when Iraq was fighting Iran.

Frankly, they should not be insisting on payment. They were never repaid in the past. Nor should U.S. taxpayers or other people who were in the process of trying to rebuild Iraq be making contributions thinking maybe that will be going to satisfy creditors from the previous regime. That would be a mistake.

I thank my friend and colleague from New Mexico.

I yield the floor.

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Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I only have a minute. I want you to take a trip with me. I want you to take a trip to Iraq.
The first thing we are going to do is walk up to a soldier. His name is Joe Chavis. We are going to say: Hi, Joe, how are you? I see that tank of yours. It needs repairing. Hey, Joe, that electric line isn't working and those kids don't have any electricity. Which do you think we ought to do: Fix your tank or fix the electricity?

Sergeant Chavis says: Fix the electricity, Senator.

I walked down the road a little bit and I saw another soldier, a woman who was there in military uniform.

I said: Ma'am, I understand that you don't have the vests that you need to protect yourself. But I also noticed over there a schoolhouse is broken down and it needs fixing. I said: What do you need most?

She said: Fix the schoolhouse.

I did that five times. Every time the soldier said: Fix whatever it is, give them whatever it is and wait on me. I can wait.

I think you should all understand that is what is going on. If we don't do that, they will be there forever. That is why they are saying, fix the other things and don't worry so much about us.