During the summer the Bush Administration got 65B in supplemental funds for Iraq. In the fall they wanted 87B more. There were many reasons to reject this request. Some objected to their refusal to account for the spending, some didn't like the fact that in part it was a loan. Some were still trying to get them to buy flack jackets. Somewhere buried in all this mess are appropriations for the funding of the WCOME contract in Iraq. There are lots of reasons to vote against this appropriation. That is the way the game is played.
Hoyer of Maryland.
Assistant Defense Secretary Wolfowitz assured us that: ``We're
dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction
and relatively soon.''
Consideration of this bill today demonstrates the falsity of that
claim.
Furthermore, the administration's post-war planning has been abysmal.
As Senator Hagel stated in September: ``I think [the Bush
administration] did a miserable job of planning for a post-Saddam Iraq.
They treated many in the Congress, most in the Congress, like a
nuisance.''
Mr Obey. (Wisconsin)
I do not agree with those who believe that we should just provide a
military package and not provide a reconstruction package. That would
be, in my view, irresponsible. But having said that, I think the
problem is that the package that is being proposed is insufficient in
terms of what it does to help the troops; and it is wasteful in terms
of what it does in Iraq, and badly through out to boot. That is why we
have been asking questions of the administration about their future
plans.
Pelosi.
When the President asked for this $65 billion, we gave it to him. We
never got an accounting for it. When the President hit with his
bombshell of asking for $87 billion more, we said we would like to see
an accounting of the $63 billion that was appropriated for last summer.
We want to know why our men and women in uniform do not have the
protection they need to fight this war, this postwar period. We want an
accounting, a justification for the $87 billion that the White House is
asking for now. We want an accountability for this failed policy.
The $87 billion request did not yet even include the funding for the
Kevlar and the jammers and the spare parts and the tracks. It really
was not until the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) made a big
issue of it, and I commend him and I commend the gentleman from
California (Mr. Lewis) for
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