mr. speaker , i thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time . 
mr. speaker , i do rise in support of the supplemental . 
i do believe that we need to provide our troops with the tools and the resources that they need to do their job safely and effectively . 
i have had an opportunity on two separate occasions now , mr. speaker , to travel to iraq to visit our troops in the field , and nothing has made me feel prouder to be an american than seeing our troops in action . 
they are well trained . 
they are well motivated . 
they are the best that we have to offer . 
i know we all hope and pray for the safety of their mission and their safe return home to be reunited with their families . 
i also want to commend the troops and the families of the 1158 transportation unit and the 128 infantry guard unit in western wisconsin that are currently serving in the iraq theater right now . 
but i do have some concerns in regard to the supplemental . 
i do believe that we owe a higher responsibility to our troops and their families and our taxpayers by supporting more oversight and accountability in this bill , such as the creation of a truman commission that the gentleman from massachusetts ( mr. tierney ) xz4004070 has been advocating for some time . 
we need more accountability on how the money is being used or misused in iraq right now . 
we need to fix that . 
i also have a concern that we are not paying for anything . 
it is awfully easy to come to the house floor and puff ourselves up and claim that we are supportive of the troops , we are doing all of these nice things for them and the families when we do not have the responsibility to pay for it . 
$ 82 billion today , well over $ 300 billion and counting , all deficit financing and we are mortgaging our children 's and grandchildren 's future . 
this is exactly why the gentleman from michigan ( mr. upton ) xz4004140 and i offered an amendment to strip funding for the creation of an embassy in iraq , not because we do not agree that one is necessary , but because we wanted to make the point that that is not an emergency item . 
none of this is unexpected emergency circumstances , and , therefore , we need to start budgeting and practice fiscal responsibility again . 
miraculously , the embassy is back in this bill , another $ 600 million , none of it paid for . 
finally , i am concerned that there is no objective criteria to measure progress in iraq . 
during the second world war , you could pretty much put pins on maps and see the progress of the front lines . 
you could do that in korea . 
in vietnam , we had body counts that did not work very well , nor was it an appropriate measure to use . 
today we have no objective criteria for us to understand whether we are succeeding and making progress there . 
i think that 's one of the reasons why public support is dropping . 
i think we need to get some type of criteria for ourselves , for the troops , for their families and for the american people . 
