Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, it might shock everyone to know that former FEMA Director Michael Brown is still on the government's payroll. Michael Brown is still earning a $148,000 annual salary.

``Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.''

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff agreed to extend Mr. Brown's contract for yet another 30 days.

Michael Brown's recent e-mails that have now been made public show he was more interested during the crisis in his dinner reservations and his attire than getting food, water, and medical supplies to those New Orleans residents, and yet he is still getting paid by the taxpayers.

We should not be shocked. This is accountability Bush style, and the only people that get fired by the President are those who tell the truth. Look at what happened with Michael Brown and look at what happened to General Shinseki who told the truth and who was fired.

Mr. Speaker, this administration gives a whole new meaning to job security. We can do better. It is time for new priorities. It is time for a change.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for establishing the All Kids health care program, and the Illinois General Assembly for passing this important initiative. This plan makes Illinois the first State in the country to provide comprehensive health insurance to every child in the State.

The All Kids program will target the estimated 253,000 uninsured children in Illinois; providing coverage for children from working families that earn too much to qualify for existing programs but not enough to purchase private health insurance.

According to a National Health Interview Survey, 39 percent of American children did not visit a doctor in the past year, and 38 percent have no regular facility to utilize for their health care needs. Because their parents cannot afford hospital bills, uninsured children are six times as likely as insured children to have serious health issues go untreated. As a result, they are at higher risk for hospitalizations and missed diagnoses of serious illnesses. Improved health care for children is not the only benefit of this program. Studies show that children with health insurance are more likely to attend school consistently.

Additionally, the grades and test scores for insured children are substantially higher than their uninsured peers.

By moving a majority of Illinois' Medicaid beneficiaries into a primary care case management program where every beneficiary has their own family doctor, the State will save millions of dollars that will be used to pay for the All Kids program and provide more Illinois children with basic health care.

The State of Illinois has taken responsibility for the children and their families who do not have this critical coverage. The program enacted by the State of Illinois is set to begin in July 2006.

With 45.8 million uninsured Americans in 2004, it is time to stop ignoring the problem and to start taking action. I congratulate the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Blagojevich for a job well done, and I urge my colleagues to take a look at what Illinois is doing to help provide health care for children.

Madam Speaker, an esteemed colleague recently said, it is much better to be us than to be them. He is probably right. It is better to be us than a middle-class family burdened with high energy costs, rising health care inflation and $8 trillion in national debt. It is probably better to be a Republican Member of Congress than a college student whose loans are about to be cut, or a child who has lost their health care because of a Republican Congress.

After years of reckless spending, the Republican Congress has left the Nation $3 trillion further in the hole.

But rather than going after corporate welfare, like the $16.5 billion handouts to oil and gas companies, this Congress is about to cut $50 billion from investments in middle-class families. They are eliminating nearly 40,000 children's nutritional programs. And while the average year of tuition at a State university is now $15,000 a year, the Republican Congress is cutting student loan programs by $14 billion. They are slashing $12 billion from Medicaid, affecting nearly 20,000 children currently covered by the program.

For what? So the Republican Congress can cut taxes for the wealthiest 1 percent. There is no question, it is better to be a Republican Member of Congress than a middle-class family.

Madam Speaker, the American people deserve better. We can do better. We need a new set of priorities, a change in the status quo.

Mr. Speaker, middle-class families across this Nation are struggling to make ends meet. While housing and education prices are skyrocketing, wages have been held stagnant for the last 3 years. Now families can add energy to the list of out-of-control costs to their family budget.

Gas is around 3 bucks a gallon. Utilities are now predicting families could pay as much as 70 percent more to heat their homes this winter. Natural gas prices are so high the Energy Department is predicting the average family will pay $350 more this winter than last winter. Home heating oil, used by many in the Northeast and Midwest, is skyrocketing.

But while American families struggle with sky-high energy bills, oil and gas companies face a totally different problem: too much cash. For example, Exxon Mobil recently reported their profits increased by 75 percent. Their revenues: $100 billion. Shell Oil, earnings 68 percent up. Phillips, 89 percent up. B.P. Amoco, 34 percent rise in quarterly earnings.

American families are struggling with massive energy bills that cut into their living expenses, their college costs, and their health care costs, while energy companies are reaping huge, huge profits.

Henry Hubble, a senior vice president at Exxon Mobil said, ``You have got to let the marketplace work.'' I agree with the executive from Exxon Mobil. Let the marketplace work.

But here is where we disagree. When they had an energy bill down on this floor, the oil companies got a $14 billion taxpayer-funded corporate welfare giveaway to do oil and gas drilling around this country. They got $14 billion for companies making record profits.

That is what we call corporate welfare. If they want the marketplace to work, give the taxpayers back their $14 billion. We should be not be subsidizing their business plans. Taxpayers are not in the business of helping companies making revenue runs at $100 billion a quarter where profits are up 89 percent.

The Congress, not Democrats but the Republicans in Congress, are cutting college loans by $14 billion, they are cutting nutritional programs for 40,000 kids, and they are cutting kids health care. Yet what have they held sacrosanct? $14 billion to Exxon Mobil. My view is what corporate America needs in the energy business is a little free market medicine.

We have seen nothing but corporate welfare around here in subsidizing the energy industry, and it is high time they get off the dole and started running their own business plan and stop asking the taxpayers to fund them. The only reason they do that around here is because, since 1980, the big oil companies have contributed $220 million to the Republican candidates for Congress, Senate, the Presidency, and their party. They have gotten a $14 billion return. You cannot get an investment return like that on Wall Street. It is 200 percent on their investment that they have gotten.

This Congress has given big oil $14 billion in tax subsidies. If that is not bad enough, there is a refinery bill where we ended up giving them another $2 billion that they did not even ask for. So with oil running at basically $3 a gallon at the gas pump, not only do consumers have to pay inflated prices to big oil at the gas pump, but on April 15 they get a bill because they have given them $14 billion in taxpayer- funded corporate welfare so they can do one thing: execute their business plans.

Well, I am suggesting they start doing a little more free enterprise in executing their business plans and stop relying on the taxpayers of America, who are struggling with sky-high energy prices, sky-high health care costs, and sky-high college tuition costs, just trying to struggle to make ends meet.

What Congress would actually cut home heating assistance to our most needy citizens yet give Exxon Mobil and the other big energy companies $16 million? A Republican Congress, but, of course, this should make sense to all of us who have seen what goes on around here.

When the Speaker's gavel comes down, that gavel is intended to open the people's House, not the auction house. What has happened around here lately when it comes to big oil companies is we auction off the American people and their future. When it comes to the pharmaceutical companies, who gave $132 million, they ended up with $135 billion in additional profit when

we did the prescription drug bill. When we had a $5 billion problem to fix with Europe on the corporate trade tax issue, what did this Republican Congress do? Of course, $150 billion tax giveaway to corporate America to solve a $5 billion problem. Only using their type of math do you work like that.

Pharmaceutical companies. Big oil companies. Corporate special interests. Selling away America. The Speaker's gavel is intended to open the people's House, not the auction house, and the United States Congress had better start acting like the people's House, because lately we are giving Christie's a run for its money around here.

You cannot give out money fast enough to the energy companies, who are making massive profits, and on the other hand cut those who are most needy. You cannot have a policy in the country that says to oil companies, who are reaping huge profits, and that is their business, but we should not subsidize their business, we are going to give you more while cutting those who are struggling. These are not the values of this country, these are not the values of the Democratic party, and, thank God, they are not the values of the American people.

We need a change. We need new priorities that focus on America's future. We can do better, and it is high time we turn the people's House back to the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Chicago for yielding me this time. I may have to go into a witness protection plan after this speech, given Wrigleyville is in my district.

As a fan of the Chicago Cubs, as those have noted and anybody listening tonight knows, the difference between the north side and the south side of Chicago when it comes to baseball is like deep dish pizza versus thin pizza. It is a serious, lifelong fight.

I will say as the proud father of an 8-year-old son, who took his son to the World Series game Sunday in the rain and 32-degree weather, which is a little more like a football game than a baseball game, and watched that grand slam and being there with my son, it was a great moment. It was a great moment for baseball, it was a great moment for Chicago, and a great moment for this country. And as a north sider, it was a great season for watching the Chicago White Sox, a great team.

Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of an energy crisis. Gas is around three bucks a gallon and utilities are now predicting that families could pay as much as 70 percent more to heat their homes this winter. Natural gas prices are so high, the Energy Department predicts that the average bill will be $350 more this winter. Home heating oil, used by many in the Northeast and the Midwest, has skyrocketed.

But while American families struggle with sky-high energy bills, oil and gas companies are facing an entirely different crisis: what to do with all the cash. For example, Exxon-Mobil recently reported that their profits increased by 75 percent in the third quarter. Their revenues were $100 billion. Shell said that their earnings increased 68 percent; Phillips' third quarter, 89 percent; BP-Amoco, a 34 percent rise in quarterly earnings.

American families are struggling with massive energy bills that are cutting into their living expenses while energy companies are reaping huge profits. Henry Hubble, the vice president for Exxon-Mobil, head of investor relations, said, ``You just got to let the marketplace work.''

I agree with the oil companies, let the marketplace work. Now, what do I mean by that? This Congress, the Republican Congress, gave Big Oil $14 billion in taxpayer subsidies to drill for oil. I am tired of this corporate welfare.

You want to do your business plan? Go drill for oil. We are not going to subsidize it so people have to pay three bucks a gallon at the pump and on April 15 have to subsidize the oil companies, who are making $100 billion of revenue a year, $9 billion in a single quarter, profits up 89 percent, record numbers; and what are we asking the taxpayers to do, struggling to make ends meet for housing, education, health care needs? We are going to subsidize Big Oil, and while we are on top of it, we are going to cut home heating assistance for the elderly in this country.

What Congress would actually cut home heating assistance for senior citizens, yet provide Exxon-Mobil $16 billion to execute their business plan? A Republican Congress, of course.

Now, this should make sense to you for one simple reason: since 1980, the big oil companies have contributed $220 million to the Republican Party in total, to candidates, and they get $16 billion in return. You cannot get an investment like that even on Wall Street. They are one of the largest contributors to the Republican Congress and the Republican Party, and they get a huge taxpayer-funded bailout when you consider the refining bill for $2 billion, the oil and gas bill. The Republican Congress, when it comes to Big Oil, is the gift that keeps on giving.

There is a cost to this corruption. It comes in the stripes and colors of a $14 billion taxpayer subsidy to Big Oil, who are making record profits. Pharmaceutical companies are one of the biggest contributors. They get $132 billion in additional profits in the prescription drug bill. You have an energy bill that we talked about. You have a corporate tax bill.

They were trying to figure out a $5 billion problem, so what do we do? We took $150 billion and threw it at that problem. Who is picking up the tab? The taxpayer. There is a cost to the taxpayers of this country for the culture of corruption. We saw it in the energy bill. And now all of a sudden Republicans are all upset with figuring out what they are going to do to really punish Big Oil.

I say it is time we give the taxpayers back their $14 billion in taxpayer subsidies from the oil companies, the $2 billion back from the refiners, and let the marketplace work its wonder. You want to do your business plan, you will do your business plan; but I am not having the taxpayer subsidize you, all the while we are going to literally cut assistance this winter to our elderly and our most vulnerable.

You cannot give out money fast enough to the energy companies who are making massive profits, and then on the other hand cut funding for those who need it most. You cannot have a policy in this country that says to the oil companies, who are reaping huge profits, that is their business, but we should not subsidize their business, we are going to give you more while we cut those who are struggling. Those are not the values of this country, those are not the values of the Democratic Party, and, most importantly, thank God, those are not the values of the American people.

We need a change. We need new priorities. These are the wrong priorities for America's future. We can do better, Mr. Speaker. It is time we return the people's House to the people. When that gavel comes down, Mr. Speaker, it is intended to open the people's House, not the auction house; and when it comes to the energy bill and prescription drug bill, the corporate tax bill, this House has looked like the auction house.

Mr. Speaker, last week, America reached a tragic milestone in Iraq, the 2,000th American died. As of today, nearly 2,030 Americans have been killed in Iraq and a little over 200 in Afghanistan. In fact, October was the deadliest month in Iraq since January. I say this not to exploit the grief felt by those families who have lost loved ones. Rather, I raise this grim milestone because it should give us, all of us, pause.

Two-and-one-half years after President Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared ``mission accomplished,'' the brave men and women of our Armed Forces are still fighting and dying in Iraq, worse today than during the actual hostilities, and there is no end in sight.

There is not a time to debate how we got into Iraq. There is a place for that. What is more important now is resolving the issues and the sense of how we have gotten into this quagmire and bring our men and women home to their families.

It is time the administration finally leveled with the American people and presented us with a viable strategy towards success and victory. It is time that the President finally surrounded himself with competent leaders who can get the job done, rather than cronies and political operatives interested in advancing a political agenda.

Before the war, General Shinseki said it would take several hundred thousand troops to secure Iraq. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said his estimate was widely off the mark and General Shinseki was let go.

Lawrence Lindsey predicted the war would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. In fact, many ridiculed his estimate and said again he was widely off the mark, that oil revenues would pay for the reconstruction.

His predictions were ignored; and $400 billion later, the tab keeps rising. Some say it will finally cost nearly $1 trillion, this war.

Dick Cheney famously predicted that we would be greeted as liberators. Let me say, if Iraq treats liberators like this, they have a funny way of greeting liberators.

Weeks after the invasion of Iraq, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld fought against increasing the troop levels in Iraq. In fact, months before the war, he was still debating whether we needed less than 100,000 troops, when those in the Armed Forces were saying we needed 200,000-plus to win that war.

When the looting broke out in Iraq right after the invasion, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld replied ``stuff happens.'' Later he said during the looting, ``freedom is untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.'' That was the Secretary of Defense. That sense of freedom has led to the situation we have today because we did not create order in that society in Iraq and a sense of who was in control.

In fact, the Defense Secretary has been flat wrong on countless occasions, both before hostilities and after the hostilities. I have lost track of the number of times he has told us that the insurgency was in its ``last throes.'' On March 30, 2003, regarding the fabled weapons of mass destruction, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld again: ``We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad.''

He has misled us on the number of Iraqis trained to conduct police and military operations. In September of 2003 he said 55,000 Iraqis have been trained. Earlier this year, he told us three battalions were operational. About a month ago, in front of the Senate, we were told that there was only one operational Iraqi battalion. Imagine that: Mr. Speaker, $450 billion, a little over 2,000 American lives, over 10,000 Americans wounded, and one operational Iraqi battalion to show for that, and two elections.

The truth is that the administration's plan for their invasion was brilliantly planned, but they have failed to plan for the occupation, costing American lives, our treasury, and our reputation, and all because of the incompetency of this administration.

Today we are left with a quagmire that has created terrorists and threatens to destabilize the region.

Let me read you what some of the experts in the Republican national security apparatus have said. Retired Army Lieutenant General Odom, former head of the National Security Agency, said the invasion of Iraq ``will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history.''

Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser to the first President Bush said: ``You have to know when to stop using force. You encourage democracy over time, with assistance, and aid, the traditional way. Not how the neocons in this administration do it.''

Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff in the State Department, called President Bush's foreign policy ``ruinous'' and said that ``we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran.''

The people I just quoted are not exactly the board of moveon.org or the Democratic Party. These are the pillars and the heads of the national security apparatus of the Republican Party. These experts are saying that it is time for a new direction with new priorities when it comes to Iraq.

We have to get it right in Iraq, but the current path the President has us on is not the path to success; and it is not simply, as he says, the choice between doing more of the same and getting the same results or merely pulling out. Mr. Speaker, $400 billion and one Iraqi battalion. Some are estimating, as I said, the cost of this war will get closer to $1 trillion.

It is time for the President to level with the American people and show us a path to success. We need a performance-based Iraqi strategy. How many police will we be reduced to this quarter? How many police will be reduced next quarter? How many Army members will be produced this quarter, the next quarter, and for the next 2 years,

every quarter this administration has to have a performance-based policy on police training, on Army training, on civil society development, on reconstruction, and on the political front so we can finally, in the President's words, stand down. But having given them free rein for nearly 2\1/2\ years and we have one battalion operationally ready to show for it, they have abused the trust of the American people.

We need to internationalize our operations in Iraq. We need to convince the world that a stable Iraq is in everyone's interests, and we need to refocus on stopping terrorism. Mr. Speaker after 2\1/2\ years and more than 2,000 American lives, it is time we adopted a different strategy, a strategy for victory that will reunite American families and provide Iraq a stable society. It is time the President stopped campaigning and began to lead on the issue of Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, while American families and businesses struggle with sky-high energy prices, oil and gas companies are facing an entirely different crisis: What to do with all their money.

Yesterday, Exxon Mobil reported that its profits increased 75 percent in the third quarter, $9 billion. American families are struggling while energy companies are reaping huge profits, but the oil companies are unapologetic.

In fact, Henry Hubble, Exxon Mobil's vice president for investor relations, defended the profits and said, ``You have got to let the marketplace work.''

Mr. Speaker, I could not agree more. The oil companies should take their historic profits and use it to execute their business plans, and that is also why oil companies should give back the $16.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies that the Republican Congress has given to the energy companies in the past 4 months.

Mr. Speaker, right now Americans are paying twice: Once at the pumps and then again on April 15 when they file their taxes. That is not the free market, it is corporate welfare. What Congress subsidizes big oil to the tune of $16.5 billion, yet cuts home heating assistance to the elderly? A Republican Congress. Exxon said let the free market work. Let us get rid of corporate welfare for the big oil companies.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois and the kind gentleman from California for bringing this resolution to the floor today and allowing me to join them as a cosponsor.

On Wednesday at a speech in front of 4,000 Iranian students, the President of Iran called for Israel to be ``wiped off the map.'' He led a group of students in chants of ``death to Israel.''

Our message to Iran and its President is firm. We condemn in the strongest terms his dangerous and reckless remarks. These comments are a wake-up call to the international community as we deal with Iran's attempt to gain access to nuclear technology.

It goes without saying, Iran's words are a challenge to all members of the

United Nations and the integrity of the United Nations Charter and those who have signed on to it. As a member of the United Nations, the President of Iran's comments violate U.N. rules and must be dealt with decisively by the United Nations leadership and all those in the Security Council.

This kind of hateful rhetoric, it breeds a terrorism and a violence that we saw in the 20th century, and we took steps to deal with that type of reckless, hateful speech. Yet, unfortunately, it is what we have come to expect from Iran's leadership, but I do not believe that spirit or those words represent the aspirations of the Iranian people.

I support this resolution and urge my colleagues in both parties and those in the world body to condemn its hatefulness in all its forms.

Again, I want to thank my two colleagues from Illinois and from California for their leadership and the speed in which they brought this resolution to the floor, because today, when it comes to hate, the United States Congress speaks with one forceful voice.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take my Special Order at this time.

Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of an energy crisis. Gas is at $3 a gallon, and utilities are now predicting that families could pay as much as 70 percent more to heat their homes this winter. Natural gas prices are so high that the Energy Department predicts that the average natural gas bill for every family will be about $350 more this winter. Home heating oil used by many in the Northeast has skyrocketed. But while American families struggle with sky-high energy bills, and oil and gas companies are facing an entirely different picture, an entirely different crisis, to be exact, what to do with all their profits.

For example, yesterday Exxon Mobil reported that its profits increased by 75 percent in the third quarter alone; their revenues, more than $100 billion. Shell Oil said that their earnings increased by 68 percent. ConocoPhillips' third-quarter earnings surged 89 percent, and BP reported a 34 percent rise in quarterly earnings.

To summarize, as American families are struggling with massive energy bills, both at the pump and home heating, energy companies are reaping huge profits.

Now, Henry Hubble, Exxon Mobil's vice president, said, ``You have got to let the marketplace work.'' As a Democrat, I could not agree more, which is why I oppose what my Republican friends try to do, which is provide the oil companies $16 billion in taxpayer subsidies. To quote again the executive from Exxon Mobil, ``You have got to let the marketplace work.''

My view is we have got to stop corporate welfare in its worse take. If you are making $100 billion or a run rate of $100 billion, profits are at $9 billion for one quarter, the taxpayers should not be footing the bill, both at the pump and on April 15 when they are subsidizing corporate America, big oil. This is corporate welfare at its worst. The corporate oil companies should take their historic profits and use them, in my view, to execute their business plan. The taxpayers should not be subsidizing big oil's business plan. You are in the energy business. Drill for oil. Taxpayers should not be subsidizing it for $16 billion.

Remember, college grants, the Pell grant system for college education in this country is a little less than $12 billion a year. Our corporate subsidy, taxpayer subsidy, for corporate America for big oil is $16 billion. It is more than we actually give for college assistance for people going to college. And they are making, just one company alone, $100 billion, $9 billion profit.

Right now Americans pay twice. Once at the pump, once on April 15, subsidizing big oil.

Again, Exxon Mobil's vice president, ``You have got to let the marketplace work.'' Therefore, give us back the money we are subsidizing you. That is not the free market when we are subsidizing corporate America. It is corporate welfare. It is time for corporate big oil to get off the welfare roles and start executing their business plan.

While Congress subsidizes big oil to the tune of $16.5 billion, we have cut home heating assistance to the elderly. What Congress would subsidize big oil for $16 billion and cut home heating assistance to senior citizens? A Republican Congress, but of course.

The energy bill we passed earlier this year contained $14.5 billion in subsidies to the energy industry. A few weeks ago we just had not done enough; in a refinery bill, a bill for oil and gas companies, which they did not even ask for, this Republican Congress gave them another $2 billion in subsidies.

This week the Resources Committee marked up a bill which would allow oil companies to drill near the coral reefs of Florida and in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Yet at the same time, we are cutting the low-income heating assistance program that helps the elderly and those most vulnerable in our country. It is notoriously underfunded. As part of the energy policy Congress authorized an increase in funding to energy assistance to $5 billion. However, we only allocate $2 billion. Some of us voted to try to bring that up to snuff so we could do the full assistance for the elderly low-income, those most vulnerable, and we are underfunding it; therefore, a cut in the program.

My view is it is time we stop subsidizing big oil and stop having the taxpayers who are very stretched, do not ask them for $16 billion when you have record profits throughout the energy industry and are cutting assistance to our elderly and most vulnerable. We can do better. We need a new set of priorities, and we need to change the direction of this country to reflect the values of the American people and their generosity.

Madam Speaker, this week we passed two milestones in Iraq: The constitution was ratified, and, tragically, the 2,000th American died. These milestones, one positive, one clearly negative, provide us with an opportunity to review our progress in Iraq. This is not a time to debate how we got into Iraq. What is important is resolving the mess.

Hear what the experts are saying: Retired Army Lieutenant General William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency, said that the invasion of Iraq ``will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history.''

Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser under the first President George Bush, said, ``You have to know when to stop using force. You can encourage democracy over time, with assistance, and aid, the traditional way. Not how the neoconservatives'' are trying to do it in Iraq.

And Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired lieutenant colonel and former Secretary of State Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff at the State Department, said President Bush's foreign policy was ``ruinous'' and said that ``we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran.''

These are not the words of partisans or the board members of MoveOn.org. As these experts and the American people know, it is time for a new direction and new priorities. We can do better. The current path is not a path to success. It is time for the President to level with the American people and produce a plan forward.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for 5 minutes at this time.

Mr. Speaker, since 2000 this Congress has racked up more than $3 trillion in additional new debt, and by the year 2008, we will cross the $4 trillion mark. Why? It is trying to do something that no other Congress and no other President has ever tried in American history. It is trying to fight two wars with four tax cuts. This Congress has served as an ATM machine to the special interests, showering them with billions of tax breaks and tax shelters and handouts of the hard-working tax dollars of the American people.

Yet suddenly our Republican friends are finding themselves as fiscal hawks. In fact, right now the House is working to slash more than $50 billion from education, health care, environmental programs, all that are important investments for the American people. Why? So they can do another $70 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent in America.

At the same time that these so-called fiscal conservatives are complaining about the deficit, they are trying to add a total of another $100 billion in tax cuts to the special interests.

I ask my colleagues, are these the right choices for the American people? We are now paying $445 billion to date for the war in Iraq, $20 billion to rebuild Iraq. We just have a spanking new dam in Mosul, Iraq, with all of the levees, yet we cut the Corps of Engineers here in the United States, which affected the levee in New Orleans.

In fact, we built 110 primary health care centers in Iraq, vaccinated 3.2 million children in Iraq. This Congress cut $10 billion from Medicaid, cutting Medicare programs, cutting back community health care clinics in the United States and training of doctors.

In Iraq, we have rehabilitated 2,700 schools, trained 36,000 secondary teachers. What do they do in America? They cut $806 million from our schools and education programs, $6 billion from our Pell grants and other higher education programs.

We funded 3,100 community development projects in Iraq; yet the community development project investment fund here in the United States, cut by $250 million.

We are investing in Iraq and trying to provide Iraq a future that we are denying the American people. I have no problem. We made a decision on Iraq. We have an obligation, but we do not have an obligation to cut back on America's future. There is no choice in the sense of American children and their future playing second fiddle to those who are in Iraq.

If you go through American history, every President in the middle of a war has thought about how do I make sure America is stronger when we come back from that war and it ends? Abraham Lincoln, in the middle of the Civil War, thought of the land grant college systems. President Roosevelt during the middle of World War II thought of the GI bill and passed it 11 months before the war came to an end. President Eisenhower, on the heels of Korea, funded the Interstate Highway System that built America and made it what it is today. President Kennedy, during the struggles of the Cold War and Vietnam, envisioned a man on the moon.

What does this President and what does this Congress offer America during the middle of the war on terrorism? Cuts in education, cuts in health care, cuts in our Corps of Engineers, cuts in our development and investments here in America.

Every President, every Congress thought about America after the war, thought about how we built a brighter future. They thought about not only what we did overseas, but how we were going to do it here at home and make sure that every American had a brighter future. Only this President and this Congress, because of their careless and reckless policy of trying to fight two wars and fund it with two cuts that has added $4 trillion to the Nation's budget.

Today we are thinking about cutting $806 million from our education investments, cutting $6 billion from our investments in higher education, eliminating investments in America's Amtrak system, cutting back our investments in the Corps of Engineers' program which invests in all of our infrastructure projects like what happened in New Orleans. No other President and no other Congress has thought of a future in which America is less after the war than it was before the war.

What is going on now? Families are facing an energy crisis where energy is now running about $3 a gallon. Home heating costs are going to go up 50 percent this winter. Inflation has increased at its fastest rate in 15 years. Hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens have lost everything in the gulf coast. Health care costs are running up at close to 15 percent, nearly four times inflation. Educational costs and higher educational costs are running at about a 10 percent annualized increase over inflation.

These are difficult times, and these times are when people look to their fellow citizens and their community and their government. What is this Congress doing? Rather than building up America, this Congress is cutting back on the investments we need to make America a stronger place tomorrow.

We can do better than we are doing today. We can make a change in the right choices for America. We should find ways to balance the budget without doing it on the backs of our children.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to change its tune. It is time for Congress to begin to represent the people's interests and the people's House rather than the special interests.

Madam Speaker, yesterday we marked a solemn milestone: over 2,000 American military personnel have now given their lives fighting in Iraq. 246 Americans have also fallen in the line of duty in Afghanistan.

We owe these brave men and women and their families a debt of gratitude that can never fully be repaid. In July of this year, I led a bipartisan group of 21 Members of Congress in reading the names of the fallen into the Congressional Record. Tonight we continue this tribute by reading the names of some of those who have fallen recently to complete the list.

At that point we had said we would read every American's name as an official part of the Congressional Record. In the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, each of these heroes stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that freedom might live and grow and increase in its blessings.

God bless each of them and keep each of the brave Americans whose memory we honor tonight in our hearts: 1st Sergeant Alan Nye Gifford, Specialist David H. Ford IV, Staff Sergeant Regilio E. Nelom, Sergeant 1st Class Lawrence E. Morrison, Specialist William L. Evans, Specialist William V. Fernandez, Sergeant Michael Egan, 1st Lieutenant Mark H. Dooley, Sergeant Pierre A. Raymond, Staff Sergeant William Alvin Allers III, Sergeant Travis M. Arndt, Specialist Scott P. McLaughlin, Specialist Kevin M. Jones, Specialist Mike T. Sonoda Jr., Sergeant Paul C. Neubauer, Sergeant Andrew Joseph Derrick, Sergeant Brian E. Dunlap, Staff Sergeant Daniel R. Schelle, Sergeant Shawn A. Graham, Sergeant Kenneth G. Ross, Sergeant Tane T. Baum, Warrant Officer Adrian B. Stump, Sergeant Patrick D. Stewart, Chief Warrant Officer John M. Flynn, Sergeant 1st Class Casey E. Howe, Master Sergeant Tulsa T. Tuliau, Private Elijah M. Ortega, Sergeant Andrew P. Wallace, Specialist Michael J. Wendling, Sergeant Howard P. Allen, Lance Corporal Steven A. Valdez, Staff Sergeant Robert F. White, Staff Sergeant Jason A. Benford, Private 1st Class Oliver J. Brown, Specialist Lee A. Wiegand, Sergeant Eric W. Slebodnik, Staff Sergeant George A. Pugliese, Staff Sergeant Daniel L. Arnold, Airman 1st Class Elizabeth N. Jacobson, Sergeant Steve Morin Jr., Sergeant 1st Class James J. Stoddard Jr., Staff Sergeant John G. Doles, Staff Sergeant Jens E. Schelbert, Specialist Joshua J. Kynoch, Sergeant Marshall A. Westbrook, Staff Sergeant Timothy J. Roark, Sergeant Larry Wayne Pankey Jr., Private 1st Class Roberto C. Baez, Specialist Jacob T. Vanderbosch, Sergeant Bryan W. Large, Corporal John R. Stalvey, Sergeant Sean B. Berry, Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian K. Joplin, Private 1st Class Andrew D. Bedard, Lance Corporal Carl L. Raines II.

Madam Speaker, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, who wrote to the mother of five fallen soldiers in the Civil War, ``I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom.''

I would also like to thank the brave men and women who continue to serve our Nation in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout the world, and serve their country with distinction and honor. Our thoughts and prayers and gratitude are with you and your families at this time until you return home.

Madam speaker, in case I mispronounced any names of any of the individuals, I apologize to them and their family. This brings us to little over 2,136 names read out of the 2,246.