[Page H5536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE TIED TO FUNDING IRAQ WAR

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, the Associated Press reports that the 
latest Iraq supplemental funding plan incredibly will tie an increase 
in the minimum wage to funding the war through October. If this is 
true, and I hope it is not, it tells American workers that the only way 
they will get an increase in wages is to continue funding a war which 
is taking the lives of their sons and daughters. First, blood for oil; 
now a minimum wage for maximum blood? Aren't the American people giving 
enough blood for this war without having to give more to have a wage 
increase? What's happened to our country? We are losing our moral 
compass. We are losing our sense of justice. We are losing touch with 
the difference between right and wrong.
  We do not have to fund this war. We must leave Iraq now. Support our 
troops. Bring them home. H.R. 1234 is a plan to end the war and 
stabilize Iraq and give Iraqis control of their oil. We must take a new 
path. We must take a path of truth and justice.

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