U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., is calling on the Bush Administration to adopt a policy which would require the Iraqi government to direct a portion of its oil revenues to help pay its reconstruction and restabilization costs.

“It’s time to stop payment on this blank check to Baghdad,” Bayh said according to a statement released on Thursday. “The Iraqi government should be required to spend every penny of Iraqi oil profits before the American people are asked for another red cent to rebuild Iraq. We cannot continue to spend billions of our own money on reconstruction while the Iraqi government sits on surpluses.”

Bayh, along with Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, are working on legislation which would require many reconstruction costs to be provided to the Iraqis in the form of a loan, “to be repaid to the American taxpayer,” the statement said.

At a news conference on Thursday, Bayh made this statement: “The Iraqi government today is reaping an oil windfall. The price of oil has gone up to $115 per barrel. This year we project that windfall oil revenues will be around $60 billion. This is at time when our country is running a deficit. We’re spending $10 billion every month in Iraq. Middle-class families and businesses across the country have to tighten their belts to make ends meet.

“It’s one thing to be asked to help those who cannot help themselves. It’s another thing entirely to ask the American people to borrow more money from China that our children will have to repay with interest, to give a country that is running a surplus and not spending its own money to help itself. That’s what has to stop.

“We spend about $153 million every month for gasoline in Iraq. We’re being charged about $3.23 per gallon. The Iraqis themselves only pay $1.30. That’s just not right. You don’t do that to your friends. You don’t do that to your allies, yet that is what is happening to us.

“This is a matter of common sense. They’re running a surplus. At a time of U.S. deficit, we should not spend one more penny on Iraq reconstruction until they step up and give everything they can to help themselves.”

Posted 4/18/2008