Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
Issues
Iraq
The Survey on Iraq has expired.
On October 30, 2003, the House of Representatives voted 298-to-121 to pass an $87.5 billion aid package for Iraq and Afghanistan. I voted against this package of funding.
I firmly believe that we need to support our troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, but this bill came woefully short of providing the supplies and benefits our soldiers need. I was disappointed that the Majority party did not allow votes on dozens of amendments that would have provided adequate funding for benefits like increased hazardous duty pay for our troops, or for basic supplies like body armor.I, myself, was denied an opportunity to offer an amendment that would have provided medical and dental screening to activated Reservists. The amendment would have also extended TRICARE health care benefits to members of the Reserve who are unemployed or are ineligible for employer-provided health insurance coverage. Today, 21% of Reserve and Guard members do not have any health insurance coverage. This lack of coverage results in health problems that delay or prohibit deployment and is a legitimate readiness issue.
The bill also needed some mechanism to induce other countries to take up some of the burden now borne by Americans soldiers as well as American taxpayers. It is also becoming increasingly clear that the situation in Iraq demands international involvement both financially and politically. Nowhere in this bill is there any recognition of the need to reach out to the international community to help rectify this problem. I believe that we must work with the international community to help pay for these expenses, as occurred for military expenses of the first Gulf War.
Finally, I could not support this measure because of the fiscally irresponsible manner in which it is paid. To simply borrow the money by adding to the already bulging federal deficit puts the cost of this conflict on the backs of our children. This credit card mentality is reckless and negligent. It is irresponsible for this Congress, or any Congress, to willfully run up mountains of debt in this fashion and I could not, in good conscience, vote to do so. Incredibly, we were prevented any opportunity to offer amendments to fix this grievous error. There were many ways to have stopped this fiscal hemorrhaging that could have been adopted to pay for this war in a responsible manner, but none were allowed to be offered according to the rules established by the Majority party. As of this writing, our national debt stands at $6.8 trillion and grows an additional $1.59 billion every day. It is clear that even with international contributions, or some kind of loan structure, this rebuilding effort will drive our current deficit into an even deeper chasm. We need to put our fiscal house in order.
In summary, the bill emerging from the House was not the best that we could have done. Given the stellar performance of our troops, Congress ought to have produced a stellar plan, and should not have settled for second best.
Thank you again for your participation in the process. I hope you will sign up for occasional email updates on this and other issues I am working on.