Sununu: Funding Iraqi Infrastructure Vital to U.S. Security
WASHINGTON – New Hampshire Sen. John E. Sununu on Wednesday rejected Democratic maneuvers to divide and possibly reduce President Bush’s request for $87 billion more for military and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sununu echoed L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority now running Iraq, who told Congress that money to rebuild the country should remain linked to funds for military operations there. American security is tied to successfully rehabilitating the war-torn nation, said Sununu, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Whether the funding for the Provisional Authority is dealing with a police force or infrastructure or for the military forces, all of them directly affect the security of the area and our national security,” Sununu said after Bremer completed three hours of testimony before the committee on Wednesday.
Bremer encouraged committee members to support all aspects of Bush’s $87 billion budget proposal, saying that “every part depends on every other part.”
Leading Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota have grown increasingly critical of the request and have said the $20.3 billion for reconstruction should be split from the more than $66 billion for military operations.
Splitting the request would make it easier for Democrats to chip away at money intended for rebuilding Iraq while avoiding the politically risky position of depriving U.S. service men and woman of the means to defend themselves. Many Democrats have said they have a tough time rationalizing spending billions to rebuild Iraq when many domestic programs, such as education, are strapped for cash.
A report released Tuesday by Democrats on the House Budget Committee estimated that the costs of reconstruction and military operations in Iraq could reach $418 billion over the next decade. At the same time, conservative Republicans have threatened to kill a plan to provide prescription drug benefits to senior citizens on Medicare if the cost exceeds $400 billion over the same period.
“We can’t even build our own roads and transit systems,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told Bremer during the hearing.
“How do we explain those inequalities to our constituencies?” Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., asked a panel of foreign policy experts who testified before the Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday.
But Bremer insisted the reconstruction money is essential.
“We cannot simply pat the Iraqis on the back, tell them they are lucky to be rid of Saddam [Hussein] and then ask them to go find their place in the global market – to compete without the tools for competition,” Bremer told the committee during its second day of hearings.
Sununu, a former engineer who visited Iraq last month, said the reconstruction money is crucial to restoring the country’s infrastructure and reducing America’s presence there.
“We’ve got to rebuild and re-establish electricity and the energy grid and the oil infrastructure because, in the long run, that will determine whether it’s an economically stable and viable country,” Sununu said. “And if it’s not economically stable, then it won’t be politically stable. And if it’s not politically stable, then our national security won’t be protected as it should be.”
Sununu also dismissed Democratic proposals to provide reconstruction money in the form of a loan that Iraq would repay once its economy had regained its footing. Bremer said Iraq’s international debt reached $200 billion under Hussein’s regime, an amount Sununu said should be largely forgiven.
“I don’t think it’s realistic to press a new loan on a government that’s effectively been bankrupted by its previous leader,” Sununu said. “This is also money that we’re putting forward because it’s in our national security interest to do so. If we start trying to complicate matters by setting up a loan agreement and repayment schedules, I think we will only set ourselves up for disappointment and frustration.”
