10.16.03

Senator Cantwell's Statement on the Reconstruction Loan Amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill for Iraq and Afghanistan

Senator Cantwell's Statement on the Reconstruction Loan Amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill for Iraq and Afghanistan

WASHINTON, D.C. – "Mr. President, I rise to join my well-meaning colleagues on both sides of this debate in trying to determine the best mechanism for not only our leadership in Iraq and getting the Iraqi people on their feet, but also in getting other countries to help by forgiving Iraqi debt.

It is crucial that we in this Chamber send a strong message to the Iraqi people that we will be the world's most outspoken advocate for Iraqi reconstruction and that the United States will play a leadership role.

Now I don't impugn the motives of other Members who want to qualify our assistance through a loan formula.

I share my colleagues' concerns that the funding for Iraq reconstruction is a serious cost that we need to thoroughly consider and oversee.

However, I think it is critically important to realize that Americans have already been making a serious investment in this region in order to ensure that we are so close to achieving: A stable, peaceful, democratic Iraq.

We spent billions of dollars to expel Hussein out of Kuwait. We spent billions throughout the nineties patrolling a no-fly zone. We spent billions to liberate Iraq, and we are spending billions to secure and stabilize the country.

We are now the closest we have ever been to achieving the very goal that we have sacrificed lives and spent billions to achieve.

We are very close to taking the Iraqi people off their knees and putting them on their feet. Yet, the right way to do this is by helping them build a strong economy not by saddling the Iraqis with further debt.

Let's consider what we are saying when we ask the Iraqi people to take on this loan. Think about it. Iraq's annual oil revenues may be somewhere around $15 billion, but we are on the verge of adding to an existing debt level of $200 billion--and expecting them to pay with their oil revenues.

To think that Iraq can pay off a loan by oil revenues when its debt is thirteen times its annual oil revenues is ridiculous. A future Iraq would end up spending half of its oil revenues on interest payments alone.

Is that the message we want to send to the Iraqi people?

Is that the message we want to send to the mayor of Kirkuk, whom I met?

Is that the message we want to send to the governor of Basra who doesn't have enough electricity to serve his community?

To the members of the Iraqi council, who are not only giving their time to serve their country, but are risking their lives.

To the woman of the Iraqi council who spent 16 years in hiding with other women only to rejoice when she found out that the United States was coming to give them an opportunity to meet and express their opinions in public.

These courageous leaders have stepped up to rebuild this country, and are willing to give their lives to do so.

We need to help these people rebuild their country, not pile on additional debt. Now is not the time for the United States to back away from its leadership role in nurturing Iraq's future.

Make no mistake, I am disappointed like all my colleagues that the American economy isn't recovering as well as it should.

I am disappointed in our terribly low levels of domestic investment. I have as much concern as anyone over our domestic economy--my home state of Washington is still facing a terribly high 7.5 percent unemployment rate. But we cannot tell the American people that we are going to solve their problem by somehow holding down the Iraqi people to a future debt that will not let them stand on their feet.

The United States must play a leadership role in Iraq reconstruction. And it is very hard to play a leadership role when our commitment to Iraq reconstruction is qualified by the conditions of a loan.

We need to say to the rest of the world community that it is time for them to help build Iraq, too.

We need to say that if they are serious in their commitments about rebuilding Iraq, as the U.N. did in its resolution today, then get behind that message and deliver.

But to say that out of the $87 billion that we are talking about, that some-how $10 billion of it ought to be paid back in a loan--only if the other countries are not willing to commit to debt forgiveness--is not the message of a leader.

A leader who believes in the Iraqi people will stand behind them and give them the ability to get their country on their feet. We must be this leader and get them on their feet and get our troops back home."