Dave Obey

Mr. OBEY

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 12 minutes to the distinguished chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Mr. Murtha.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano), the chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations. (Mr. SERRANO asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall). (Mr. UDALL of New Mexico asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. The gentleman talks about how we need to support General Petraeus. Let me quote from Thomas Friedman, who has had years of experience in understanding the Middle East. He said: I hope the Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi keep pushing to set a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq because they are providing two patriotic services that the Republicans failed to offer in the previous 4 years. The first is policy discipline. The other useful function Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues are performing is to give the President and General David Petraeus, our Commander in Iraq, the leverage of a deadline without a formal deadline. How so? The surge cannot work without political reconciliation among Iraqi factions, which means Sunni-Shiite negotiations, and such negotiations are unlikely to work without America having the leverage of telling the parties that if they do not compromise, we will leave. Deadlines matter. At some point Iraqis have to figure this out themselves. Since Mr. Bush refuses to set a deadline, Speaker Pelosi is the next best thing. Do not underestimate how useful it is for General Petraeus to be. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of time.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), chairman of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman can have charts, but the charts don't change facts. I would also observe that the important thing is not what happened 7 or 8 years ago. The important thing is what we are going to do today and tomorrow. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. Again, we can debate yesterday until the cows come home. What Mr. Murtha and I are trying to focus on is what we do in this bill today to make tomorrow better for our servicemen and our country. That is the issue, and that is the issue that this bill tries to address.

Mr. OBEY. I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. OBEY. I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from California (Mrs. Capps).

Mr. OBEY. I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick). (Ms. KILPATRICK asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. OBEY. I yield myself 1 minute. I would say to the gentleman who just spoke, for the last 4 years we have tried it your way. For the last 4 years we have had a Congress that did whatever George Bush wanted it to do, rubber-stamp, lock-step all the way. Today is different. Today we have a Congress that is responding to what the public asked for in the last election. What you are seeing today is the new world of checks and balances. Get used to it. It is what the public asked for, and it is what they are going to get out of this Congress.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), the caucus vice chairman.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), a distinguished graduate of the University of Wisconsin and featured in the Wisconsin alumni magazine.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), a member of the committee.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey), a member of the committee.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).