Redirect War Money to Highway Projects

Mr. Speaker:

We take in approximately $39 billion a year for the Highway Trust Fund to take care of transportation needs all over this country.

We have spent $103 billion over the last several years rebuilding Afghanistan.

Now they tell us projects all over this country will have to stop because of a $15 billion shortfall in our Highway Trust Fund.

Today and tomorrow we will have before us a defense bill that has a $79 billion placeholder for overseas contingency operations over and above the regular defense budget.

It has been this amount or much more over the last several years.

This account is primarily for Iraq and Afghanistan, where we are still spending mega-billions.

We should take at least some of this money to cover the shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund to keep these projects and jobs going all over the U.S.

We have spent far too much blood and treasure in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last few years, and that needs to stop.

Mr. Speaker, we need to stop spending all these billions in Iraq and Afghanistan and start taking better care of our own people and our own Country.