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Floor Statements
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Trillion With a "T" (#362)
Watch Video | | June 10, 2010 | |
| Mr. Speaker, a week ago Sunday, at approximately 10:06 a.m., after the House had adjourned for recess and Americans were enjoying their holiday weekend, the Nation reached a truly disturbing milestone. At about that moment, according to the National Priorities Project, the combined amount of taxpayer money spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan reached a staggering $1 trillion. That's trillion with a ``T,'' Mr. Speaker.
That's a breathtaking amount of money to spend, even on something that works. But that kind of spending on two bloody wars that have taken thousands of American lives, destabilized other parts of the world, and done nothing to achieve national security goals, well, it's positively shameful.
That trillion dollars doesn't even include some bills that haven't yet come due, like future medical costs for returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, a commitment we absolutely must keep. Nor does it include interest our grandchildren will pay on the debt we have racked up to finance these wars.
What I can't help thinking, Mr. Speaker, is the lost opportunity costs that we should be taking into account. What could we be spending that kind of money on if we weren't wasting it on immoral wars?
The National Priorities Project did a few calculations that report what we could do with a trillion dollars. They say we could provide a year's worth of health care to 161 million low-income Americans, or we could pay for 137 million Head Start slots, or we could put 16 million more teachers in our elementary school classrooms.
But a funny thing happens whenever we try to make significant investments in the American people, especially those who find themselves struggling through no fault of their own. Suddenly, many of the same people who want to hand a blank check to the Pentagon become the strictest penny-pinchers. The priorities are completely distorted. We have to fight and scrap for every dime of spending designed to help our own people. But in the name of overseas invasion and conquest, money is no object and no expense is spared.
We don't need to spend a trillion dollars to combat terrorism and protect our people. Instead, we can implement a smart security strategy that rejects warfare for the kind of real power, moral authority, and humanitarian decency that is American. It is America at its very best.
It's time to replace the military surge with a civilian surge, Mr. Speaker. We need aid workers, diplomatic initiatives, civil society programs, teachers, democracy promotion specialists, agricultural experts and much more, which would and will make us safer at a fraction of the cost.
Mr. Speaker, these trillion dollar wars have to end. It's time to move to a smart security strategy. It's time to bring our troops home. |
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