NM SENS: Bring Troops Home From Afghanistan
Twenty-Four Senators Tell President it’s Time to Focus on American Job
WASHINGTON - In a bipartisan letter from 24 senators, Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall today called on the president to bring American combat forces home from Afghanistan.
As the Senate considers the 2012 Highway Bill on the floor this week, the senators pointed out that the total dollar amount spent in both Iraq and Afghanistan to datewould provide enough funding to rebuild the American interstate highway system five times over.
"We simply cannot afford more years of elevated troop levels in Afghanistan. We are spending roughly $10 billion in Afghanistan each month at a time when we're making tough sacrifices at home. Your recent budget calls for $88 billion more for the war in Afghanistan in2013. If this money is appropriated, we will have spent a total of $650 billion in Afghanistan. A majority of Americans worry that the costs of the war in Afghanistan will make it more difficult for the government to address the problems facing the United States at home. They're right," the Senators wrote.
Bingaman and Udall were joined on the letter by Senators: Max Baucus, (D-Mont.); Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.); Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.); Tom Harkin (D-Iowa); Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.); Herb Kohl (D-Wis.); Patty Murray (D-Wash.); Ron Wyden (D-Ore.); Dick Durbin(D-Ill.); Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.); Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.); Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.); Bob Menendez (D-N.J.); Ben Cardin (D-Md.); Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio); Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.); Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.); Al Franken (D-Minn.); Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.); Rand Paul (R-Ky.); and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
Complete text of today's letter follows below:
Senators call for American troops to come home from Afghanistan
