Rebuild America — not Just Iraq

WASHINGTON, D.C.

More than 100 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have endorsed a bill — supported by AFSCME — requiring the federal government to match what it spends to rebuild Iraq with funding for urgent domestic needs. The proposed legislation underscores the unfairness of President Bush's sending more than $20 billion to construct Iraqi schools and prisons, and provide health care for all Iraqis while ignoring critical needs here at home.

For example, the Bush administration will spend 300 times more to develop a reliable electrical system in Iraq than to resolve our own power problems — even after last summer's massive blackout. The state of our highways is another area of serious concern. According to an American Society of Civil Engineers report: "The nation is failing to even maintain the substandard conditions we currently have, a dangerous trend that is affecting highway safety."

Spending money on our own infrastructure also creates jobs at home, where 8.7 million people are out of work. These are jobs with good pay and benefits — and often union representation.

President McEntee has spoken out strongly for this legislation. If Congress can find the money to restore post-war Iraq, he says, "it should be able to find $20 billion to rebuild our own country." It's time, he adds, to tell Congress to rebuild America, not just Iraq.