Mr. Speaker, today the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction holds its first organizational meeting; and it does this as it begins its work on reaching the spending cut benchmarks called for in the debt ceiling compromise.

I have a suggestion for the 12 members who have been entrusted with this responsibility. I know exactly the place they should identify for their savings. It's a government program that's been notorious for waste and cost overruns. It's been cited many times over by neutral experts for its excess and inefficiency. It hasn't achieved its stated goals and it is deeply unpopular with the American people.

I'll give you a hint. It's not Medicare or Social Security. It's not food stamps or unemployment benefits or Pell Grants or WIC. It's not any of the programs that comprise the safety net for our Nation. It's not any initiative designed to lift up the American people and giving them a chance to rise above difficult economic times.

No. It's a decade-long effort that has been fiscally irresponsible, eroded our moral authority around the world, and cost our Nation more than 6,000 precious lives.

That's right, Mr. Speaker, our ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are the perfect target for the spending cuts our country needs to restore fiscal balance.

I have written a letter to the supercommittee, cosigned by 23 of my colleagues--so far, they're still signing on--strongly urging the committee to take a hard look at the overwhelming crippling costs of these wars. Afghanistan alone is costing the American people at least $10 billion a month, and to date, Iraq and Afghanistan combined have sucked the Treasury dry to the tune of a staggering $2.3 trillion--not million, not billion, $2.3 trillion. Frankly, this would be a rip-off at a fraction of the cost. If these wars were revenue neutral, if they carried no price tag at all, I would say it's not worth it. Just during the month of August, when Congress was in recess, 70 more brave Americans died in Afghanistan, making last month the single deadliest month of this 10-year war.

The notion that things are looking up in Afghanistan is ridiculous on its face. Our continued occupation is impeding progress, not making it; fanning the flames of the insurgency instead of putting them out; making us less safe, not more. And for this, we are asking our people here in the United States to go without.

Less than 12 hours from now, however, the President will be speaking from the Chamber, and he will be talking about his job creation strategy. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I fear, will react by saying we can't spend a dime more to solve our devastating economic crisis and put Americans back to work, yet the overwhelming majority of them have nothing at all to say about the trillions of dollars we've wasted and are continuing to spend on reckless, senseless, immoral wars.

It's true that budgets are about choices. Which will we choose: the human destruction of seemingly endless wars abroad or the pressing human needs we have here at home?

The supercommittee has a big job, Mr. Speaker. It will be grossly irresponsible for them to ignore one of the biggest ticket items when they're making their considerations. Let's help solve our budget crisis and our moral crisis at the same time by bringing our troops home.