Date: 2007-05-23
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

no one. Democrat or Republican. should apologize for what is going on right now in Washington. DC. I think many of our friends who believe we should be out of Iraq tomorrow. we should send every plane we can possibly send. take our troops out. redeploy our troops and just leave it as is. there is a process in doing that. We are going through that process right now. A lot of it is very painful. Some say. why are you giving the President another opportunity to continue this war and continue to fight this war? Havent you learned over the last 5 years that the strategy they are using is a combat strategy. not a diplomatic strategy. not making sure there are benchmarks on the Iraqi Government. and they had that opportunity. I encourage. Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. when we do get a bill on the floor. we do have a number of Republicans voting on behalf of this next supplemental. and a number of Democrats voting on behalf of the supplemental. And those that feel the war should end tomorrow should understand that this is a major accomplishment in the effort in taking away what the President has had for the last 5 years: a blank check. do as you want to do. Donald Rumsfeld and all of them. As Mr. RYAN says. as I close on this point. the real issue here is the truth will surface. Some of it has already surfaced. and a lot of it will continue to surface as we learn more about what the Congress was not told and as we learn more about what we were told incorrectly. And as Americans reflect back on this time. they will see some of the worst misinformation and secrecy at a time of war and a time of economic strain on this country. We have borrowed more from foreign nations than we have ever borrowed in the history of the Republic. and still. we have Members standing here asking what is wrong. Well. the reason we are in the majority on this side of the aisle. we are very busy leading on behalf of the American people. is a perfect example of what is wrong. The American people know what is going on. I am not talking about a bunch of proud Democrats. I am talking about Independents and Republicans and those who have never voted before in their life. they decided to get involved and vote. If this was just about politics. we would just go -home or be in our offices doing the things we need to do for tomorrow. and let the Democratic majority get bigger and bigger because we would lead the Republicans to doing and saying what they have been doing. all along. But this is bigger than politics. This is about our democracy. This is about our finances here in the country. and this is about saving U.S. lives that are in harms way right now when we can work out a better plan and force the Iraqi Government to take the responsibility of their streets. take the responsibility of their patrols. and make sure. that they meet benchmarks just like every U.S. mayor has to meet with Federal dollars. just like every U.S.. Governor has to meet when they are spending Federal dollars. Just like every U.S. agency should be accountable .to the taxpayer dollars. the Iraqi Government and those in the Iraqi Government should be just as accountable and greater with the U.S. taxpayer dollars. I dont want to get all emotional. like Mr. RYAN said. but I cant help but do it when I think about Memorial Day coming up and when I think about the veterans benefits that we have in the emergency supplemental. We have some folks saying we. shouldnt have any domestic spending in here. and we have troops coming back and still waiting a long time to get their service. It was the Democrats that put forth the dollars to make sure that Walter Reed was repaired. That is also in this emergency supplemental. We will talk a little more about that as we move along. I know we are going to -talk about gas prices in the time left. Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I think we should commend every American for being focused on this issue of Iraq and encourage a discourse. I was out behind the Chamber today on the balcony. and I noticed a person out there on a bullhorn saying. "Stop the war." I wasnt bothered by that because the men and women that we are going to celebrate on Monday fought for that lady to be out there saying what she was saying.