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President Demands Blank Checks for Iraq

Date: Oct. 30, 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Defense Foreign Affairs


PRESIDENT DEMANDS BLANK CHECKS FOR IRAQ -- (House of Representatives - October 30, 2007)

[Page: H12160]

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(Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

[Page: H12160]

Ms. WATSON. Madam Speaker, last week President Bush requested an additional $42 billion from Congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing his total funding request for the upcoming year to $190 billion.

Also last week, the Congressional Budget Office released a report concluding that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost $2.4 trillion over the next decade. That's nearly $8,000 for every American.

Just imagine if we rejected the President's plan to continue the war in Iraq for another decade and worked instead to responsibly redeploy our troops out of Iraq within the next year. Rather than spending $2.4 trillion over in Iraq, we could instead invest it here with our own people. This would be more than enough to provide every college freshman in our Nation with a free 4-year education at a private college or university. We could also use that money to provide health care coverage to every American for a year or could pay off 26 percent of our national debt.


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