Dale Bumpers: “I was one of five Senators who voted no. I think the bill passed 95 to 5. I don't enjoy voting against a defense budget.…”

“I was one of five Senators who voted no. I think the bill passed 95 to 5. I don't enjoy voting against a defense budget. I am not running again, so I am not worried about somebody accusing me of being soft on defense. That has always been the mortal fear of Members of the Senate when you are voting on weapons system, that their opponent in the next election will accuse them of being soft on defense. Sometimes I think we should be accused of being soft in the head. We passed a bill that contained $247.5 billion for defense, and that did not include nuclear weapons and weapons development. When you add those together, the appropriations for national defense total $268.2 billion. If, in 1985, you had asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, indeed, if you had asked all the chiefs, 'If the Soviet Union were to suddenly be dissolved and disappear, how much do you think we could cut the defense budget,' I promise you the answer would have been anywhere from $50 billion to $100 billion. Today the Soviet Union has been dissolved. It does not exist anymore.”