Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations - Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

MAKING EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - November 16, 2007)

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Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I will try to frame the issue the way it deserves. It is going to be hard hitting. Senator Reid told me something one time, that we shouldn't run the Congress down. I generally agree with that except here. What we are about to do is take one of the most successful military operations in American history by any measure, the surge, and undercut it by one of the most dysfunctional Congresses in American history, by denying the funding to the troops in the field who have performed.

The House bill would replace military commanders with a dysfunctional Congress that is being led around by its nose by Code Pink and moveon.org, who don't understand success on the battlefield. All they see is the next election, the potential for an ad. Listen to the inflammatory rhetoric.

We are not going to allow the dysfunctional Congress to replace a successful commander. We are not going to send the message to our enemies: You are back into the fight. We are not going to tell our troops: You are a loser; you don't get any more money. We are not going to tell our allies and the brave Iraqis who have jumped on our side that we are leaving. This is ridiculous. It is undercutting America's vital national security interests, and it is telling our soldiers: You are losers--when they are winners. We are going to defeat it now and forever.

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