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Floor Speech

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Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. President, when I talk to people in Arizona, they tell me they want their politicians to focus on helping them afford healthcare, buy a home, put groceries on the table, and fill up the tank.

Not once has anyone said to me: You know what we need? Another war.

And yet, that is exactly what this administration keeps delivering, one conflict after another.

Right after New Year's, Trump illegally invaded Venezuela with no plan for democratic transition. Less than 2 months later, he led us into a war with Iran with no justification or definition of what victory looks like.

Now, 13 servicemembers are dead; we are deploying more troops overseas; and gas prices are up 40 percent as a direct result of Trump's failing foreign policy.

But as if the disaster of the Iran war and the resulting spike in oil prices weren't enough, Trump is continuing to threaten to invade Cuba as well. What we have seen in the past 5 months tells us we can't just ignore these threats.

Trump's go-fast-and-break-things approach doesn't work. When you rush into a war without a plan, people die. When you send servicemembers overseas with no clear justification, they come home broken. And we can't afford the consequences of that, not when it comes to American lives.

Trump has zero understanding of what it means to make life-and-death decisions because he has never served a day in his life. It is not his or his friends' children he is sending to die; it is young working- class Americans.

I know. I served in Iraq with many of these men and women. Twenty- three of them did not make it back. Their lives, the lives of our servicemembers, are what Trump is playing with right now.

The American people are not asking for this. They want us to focus on building up our communities, not nation building abroad. They want us focused on building housing in Arizona, not bombing houses in Havana. They want us to lower the cost of healthcare and not condemn a generation of veterans to a lifetime of hospital visits. And they want us to make their lives more affordable, not spend their tax dollars on unnecessary wars.

But instead of focusing on what the American people want, President Trump has decided instead to focus on satisfying the neocons in his circle, like Marco Rubio, who are always asking for a new war and who see every crisis as an opportunity to score political points in South Florida.

Donald Trump, the man who ran on ``America First'' and ending forever wars has handed over the keys to the war hawks, and it is American families that are going to pay the price.

This resolution is very clear: No unauthorized war in Cuba, and no more bypassing Congress. If military force is necessary, then Trump and Rubio need to come to Congress and make their case in full view of the American public and let the country decide if it is really in America's best interests.

But the people I talk to in Arizona, the troops I have served with, and the families who have buried loved ones who didn't come back, they know the answer. They know what the final answer would be. It is: Do not do this. It is not in our interest, and it is not what America wants.

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