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the basic infrastructure of the United States that cry out for attention. We have delayed for decades and the needs are only growing. There are antiquated sewer and water systems, built a century ago, in our major cities. Washington, D.C. has water not always safe to drink. Rural communities live with black mud coming out of their faucets. There are unsafe bridges, aging reservoirs, schools without adequate heat or modern learning tools all around our land. Homeland Security needs are underfunded. Yet, we continue to commit billions to rebuild Iraq, while our own needs go begging. Is it not now painfully evident to everyone that we must make basic investments in our own country a national and urgent priority?
Imagine a major terrorist attack on the heels of a catastrophe like Katrina. I have to believe that Osama or one of his henchmen is taking notes as we struggle with the devastation left in Katrina's wake.
Our economic resources are stretched dangerously thin, and so is our military might. We have taken on too much, turned our backs on cooperation with the international community, decided to go it alone and pursue some grandiose scheme of remaking the world in our own image. By now it should be clear to all that grand experiments are very, very costly. It is time for a national epiphany. The sound of Katrina's bugle must be heeded. We cannot continue to commit billions in Iraq when our own people are so much in need, not only now, in New Orleans, but all across America for everything from education to health care to homeland security to securing our own borders. We need to stop making excuses, stop spinning the facts, and come to grips with the unpleasant truth. The government of the United States is failing the American people.
Where is the national debate about our priorities which Katrina should prompt? What does it take to wake us up? It is a debate that must begin, if not on this Senate Floor, then in the barber shops and grocery stores of America and in the print and broadcast media of this great nation.
It is past time for that debate and high time for all of us to realize that there is nothing more patriotic than taking a good, hard, honest look at our national priorities. We the people always have that right. A strong republic depends upon just that kind of periodic soul-searching. Does our moral sense of ourselves translate into government policies? I believe that, presently, it does not. We have a disconnect in government policy in everything from a tarnished U.S. image abroad to a failure to address gasoline shortages, and skyrocketing prices that will certainly slow our economic engine and take their toll on working people. Instead of asking the public not to buy more gas than needed, I wish somebody would ask the giant oil companies to pass up some profits and help hold down gas prices as a patriotic gesture for our country. Would that be so outrageous? And why have we not had the vision to invest in alternative energy sources on a grand scale to free us from the addiction to foreign oil?
For too long our great land has been allowed to drift toward balkanization - - a separation between the haves and have nots, with the lower end of the income scale at risk from a tattered safety net, and a neglected infrastructure, lacking the jobs and the housing they need, the health care to stay well, the insurance to cover hospital stays, or the educational opportunity to prepare for the future. I remember an America that used to feel more like one country - - an America that shared the sacrifice of war, and tightened its belt so we could pay for it. Now we borrow to go to war, and cut taxes to spare those in high brackets from sacrifice. Where is the sense of shared destiny? It has taken nature's own weapon of mass destruction, a category 4 hurricane, to remind us that we are all Americans, and that our government has a moral obligation to serve us all.
This country is on the wrong track and the course needs correcting. Continued denial serves no good purpose. Further loss of American life in Iraq may permanently sour the American people on future military action, and damage recruitment for our all-volunteer force. "To every thing there is a season, . . . a time to kill, and a time to heal. . . ." We have seen the fallacy of sending too many members of the National Guard to the Middle East. As I speak, we have lost 1,886 sons and daughters in Iraq and there seems to be no end in sight. We have 137,000 troops still serving in Iraq with 2,000 more scheduled to go in in October. We are building at least four semi-permanent bases in Iraq structured to hold 18,000 troops each. That does not sound like "staying not one day longer than needed" to me.
In truth, most Americans no longer support a massive deployment in Iraq. Nor do they understand the mission of that continued deployment. Despite repeated directives by the Congress, the "powers that be" refuse to actually budget for Iraq, so that a total picture of our fiscal situation is deliberately obscured. We are driving our country ever deeper into debt, and stretching every resource we possess to the breaking point. Prudence demands that we reassess our posture. Our inept and pathetic response to Katrina has underlined our vulnerabilities and writ them large before the world. The American people deserve better than this.
I call upon the leaders of this country to come together and to work together to repair our storm- ravaged Gulf Coast and help salvage the lives of its victims, but more than that. I call upon the Congress to inventory our homeland with an eye to the future. Let us look around America and target our deficiencies. Let us work with state and local communities to shore up our
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