Dale Bumpers: “Mr. President I want to congratulate my distinguished colleague from Iowa for a very sensible amendment, one that ought…”

“Mr. President I want to congratulate my distinguished colleague from Iowa for a very sensible amendment, one that ought to receive the unanimous approval of this body. This budget contains just over $500 billion in discretionary spending. I want my colleagues to think about this for a moment. We are looking at a total budget of between $1.6 trillion and $1.7 trillion and only a bit over $500 billion of that is for discretionary spending. Under this budget, about $265 billion of that is for defense. That does not leave much for programs that go to the very heart of the values of the country and the things that really make this Nation strong, like education and transportation. I can tell you that the number of explosions you can set off with weaponry is not necessarily related to the real strength of this Nation. I am always nonplused and puzzled when so many people jump under their desks every time somebody mentions cutting defense. You can savage education, which this budget does, you can savage the environment, which this budget does, you can savage the programs that people depend on for their very livelihood, earned-income tax credits, and on and on it goes, you can deal with those programs and you can ask for a whopping tax increase for the wealthiest among us, but if you ask defense to take one single dollar less, everybody goes berserk.”