Some Republicans have been upset that we are proposing to debate the war. Some say that it is not a state issue. I disagree for several reasons. First, at the beginning of the war, the Republicans ran several resolutions supporting the President’s conduct of the war. We do resolutions to express the view of the General Assembly on numerous national issues.
Second, the war has had a huge fiscal impact on Colorado. The Federal government is proposing to cut funds that had previously been designated for Colorado in numerous areas. These include work-force development, five million dollars for incarcerating people held for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, funds for disaster relief for farmers on the eastern plains, funds for homeland security, and Medicaid. Current costs of the Iraq War exceed $500,000,000,000. This is why other programs are being cut
Finally, Americans soldiers and Iraqi civilians are dying. Over a hundred of the soldiers have ties to Colorado. To argue that we shouldn’t be debating the resolution, because the Iraq war somehow doesn’t affect Colorado, seems like a pretty hard case to make.”
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