Housing for the 21st Century Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, President Trump promised to deliver Americans lower prices and no new wars. When it comes to broken promises, it does not get more blatant than that.

First, prices are soaring. Republicans let healthcare premiums double. They slashed Medicaid and food stamps. And Republicans allowed Trump to hit families with the largest tax increase in American history, his tariffs that are squeezing family budgets and shutting down businesses.

But not content to only break his promise of lower prices, President Trump is also breaking his promise of no new wars. Trump is charging ahead with new conflicts without approval from Congress, without any long-term strategy, and without any concern about who will be paying for the consequences of his actions in Venezuela and now in Iran.

Trump, who is a billionaire, knows he is not going to pay for the war. He knows his family is not going to be on the front lines. Instead, everyday Americans are going to pay the cost of Trump's war with the higher prices and worse inflation, fueled by oil prices that are already rising. American families are going to pay for Trump's war in lost opportunities, as billions upon billions of dollars that could have gone to building affordable housing or making childcare accessible or lowering your healthcare premiums are now squandered on more missiles, set to be launched by a trigger-happy billionaire with no concept of the repercussions.

I mean, seriously, this President is ordering our kids to be shipped off into war from his beach club in Florida. That is obscene.

And tragically, American families are already paying the cost of Trump's war, as the lives of our brave American servicemembers, our sons and daughters, are lost. My heart goes out to the families who have already lost a loved one in Trump's war. And my thoughts are with the rest of our servicemembers on the front lines and their family members back home, all of whom are watching the news and anxiously waiting to hear what happens next.

You deserve a clear strategy from any President before he puts you in harm's way, not a President who shrugs his shoulders about how long this will go, not a President who doesn't know and doesn't care if he will put American boots on the ground, and not a Congress led by Republicans that refuse to do their job and hold the President accountable to the people before our citizens are put in danger.

You know how I can tell President Trump has no strategy? Well, I have been listening to him because I have been scouring every statement from this administration in public remarks, in private briefings for any inkling of a cohesive strategy, a real plan, even a spark of critical thinking about what happens next.

No one here mourns the Supreme Leader, but no one in this administration has a clear answer about what happens next.

I strongly support the millions of Iranians who have been protesting and speaking out for freedom and democracy, but you don't bring democracy to the Middle East with bombs. Haven't we learned that by now?

There is no guarantee that what comes next means a safer world for all of us or a democracy for the Iranian people.

War should always be a last resort. But, of course, the same people who came up with a name like Operation Epic Fury can't seem to think of a plan more nuanced than blow things up, pat themselves on the back, regardless of the fallout.

Maybe that is why Trump refused to make an address to the American people, laying out his rationale before this strike. Maybe that is why he refused to ask Congress to back his plan before he sent missiles flying--because he didn't have a plan.

That honestly becomes more clear every time a member of this administration opens their mouth. After all, Trump and his officials are contradicting themselves, one moment to the next--sometimes in the same breath. But the truth is obvious. Trump cannot pretend to have a strategy for this war when he can't even say why he started it.

First, he says: We destroyed Iran's nuclear capability. Then he says: Just kidding, we have to bomb again.

One minute the administration claims Iran planned an imminent attack on Americans. Then they admit that was not true.

Trump cannot pretend to have a strategy for this war when he can't even decide on whether this is about regime change or not. His Secretary of Defense said in the same breath:

This is not a regime-change war . . . but the regime did change.

His Secretary of State says the administration wasn't targeting Iran's Supreme Leader. But then Trump says:

I got him before he got me.

And President Trump has also urged the Iranian people to rise up on the one hand but suggested he is ready to negotiate with the government on the other.

And Trump cannot pretend to have a strategy when he doesn't even care about the timeline. In one sentence he said the conflict is ``projected 4 to 5 weeks,'' but we have the ``capability to go far longer than that. . . . We'll do whatever.''

Excuse me? ``We'll do whatever?'' That is not a plan. ``We'll do whatever'' is simply not good enough when American lives are at stake. And then in a post yesterday, Trump said ``wars can be fought forever.'' The American people do not want forever wars, not again.

And if you really want to understand just how callous and unserious the President is about the war he is starting; if you really want to understand just how little he has thought about the American servicemembers, Embassy personnel, and everyday Americans he is putting in harm's way, Trump ended his train of thought the other day by saying:

I don't get bored. There's nothing boring about this.

Before he actually got bored of talking about the war, he started and moved right on to a topic he really does care about, his precious White House ballroom. You want to know where Trump's priorities lie? He has clearly put more thought and care and planning into this new White House ballroom than he has with the war with Iran. He will talk about it any chance he gets.

He has a timeline for the ballroom. He has a budget for that ballroom. He has an actual long-term vision for the ballroom but not for the war he started from Palm Beach, FL, not for a war with American lives on the line.

And that is because the problem is worse than Trump lacking any strategy for his war with Iran. President Trump also lacks any sort of concern for the weight of his decisions or any sort of appreciation of the sacrifice he is singlehandedly forcing on our military families.

Again, that is clear from his own words. What did he say to the tragedy that American servicemembers were killed by Iran's response? Trump said:

There will likely be more. . . . That's the way it is.

That is the way it is?

Or asked about boots on the ground, about putting our sons and daughters in the line of fire, he shrugs it off and says:

I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground.

That might be the most dismissive statement I have ever heard by a President making that about our servicemembers. It is reckless, it is insulting, and it is up to us here in Congress to say enough.

But we need Republicans to join us. War is not some game. Our troops are not toy soldiers. Civilian casualties are not nothing. In Iran, hundreds have died, including more than 100 schoolgirls, children. They are blameless. Hospitals have been bombed. Shopping malls and homes have been hit.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the President this war could lead to significant American casualties. Already as we know, six American servicemembers have died. I don't care if the media grades Trump on a curve. It is not acceptable for a President to shrug his shoulders at this kind of death and destruction and then provide no real reason for launching a brutal war of choice. What a disgrace to the office. What a disgrace to the role of Commander in Chief. The American people deserve so much better.

If Trump will not rule out boots on the ground, then this Congress needs to. We have a constitutional responsibility when it comes to war, and I will never let us forget that.

As I said in 2002 before voting against the Iraq war due to similar concerns, I understand the consequences of war. I don't shrink from them. My father was among the first to land in Okinawa as a GI. He was a Purple Heart recipient. Growing up, we always knew our country may need to project force to defend our freedoms. And I know we have a high obligation to the men and women of our Armed Forces who undertake the hard work of securing our freedom.

In college, I volunteered during the Vietnam war at the Seattle Veterans Hospital. Most of the patients were young men my age at the time who had returned from Vietnam traumatized. I carry that experience with me every day. It weighs heavily on my mind whenever we are faced with questions of war and peace.

Putting our men and women in uniform in harm's way, that is an absolute last resort. We owe it to them to do our due diligence first. We must have good reasons based on solid intelligence. We must have clear goals and a plan to achieve them. We must have a serious plan that puts them in no more danger than necessary, for no longer than necessary.

We should not gamble American lives on incomplete plans, unclear objectives, and completely uncertain futures. That was on my mind when I voted against the Iraq war in 2002, and it is my North Star today as well.

But there is a big difference between what is happening right now and what happened back in 2002 before the Iraq war because you see, back in 2002, the administration came to Congress to make its case for war. The President went to the American people to make that case. And the Secretary of State spoke to the U.N. I did not agree with this case. I voted against the war. But Congress--we--all of us--had briefings. We had public hearings, and we had serious conversations with the President and his leaders.

Back in 2002, Congress debated; we deliberated; we voted. And this is critical. We did it before the Bush administration charged into what was, predictably, a painful war with no end in sight.

But Trump doesn't want any of that. He doesn't want to make his case to America or our allies or Congress. He doesn't think he has to. Trump wants to bomb what he wants, he wants to kill whom he wants to, and start whatever war he wants--consequences be damned.

We saw it in Iran. We saw it in Venezuela. This is not a pattern that we can ignore. The Founders--Founders of this country--put Congress in charge of declaring war for a reason. This cannot be left to one man, certainly not a trigger-happy billionaire who is out of touch with reality. We--all of us--have to reassert our power as a coequal branch of government, and we have to do what is best for our country and for our servicemembers.

America does not want any more wars. It does not want more Americans killed because of a reckless President that a Republican Congress refused to check. We know what America wants. All of us do know that. They want us to keep the promises that Trump broke--lower prices, no new wars.

I will be voting against this war. I urge all of my colleagues to join me.

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