Political Quotes

“Tonight we are going to talk about pork ships. Now, you may be scratching your head. What is a pork ship? Well, a pork ship was a name coined by POLITICO. Some may think, well, maybe that is a creative barbecue dish. Or military historians might say: Well, maybe it has something to do with the Bay of Pigs. Others might think it is an Oscar Mayer-sponsored cruise liner. But all those guesses would be wrong. The term actually applies to a chronically unreliable ship, the littoral combat ship. Well, how unreliable is this ship? In just the last 9 months, four of the six ships that we have built as Littoral combat ships have been in trouble. They have broken down. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I have been working to rein in this program for years. Unfortunately, the ship's manufacturers and some Members of Congress seem intent on throwing good money after bad. The LCS has cost us almost $20 billion so far; $20 billion for six ships. But we have many more that we are going to build that are going to be flawed and that will break down. So the total cost of the ships over the course of the program is a mind-blowing $120 billion. That is right, $120 billion. Now, we are scraping right now to find enough money for the defense budget. We are scraping right now to come up with $2 billion to protect Americans from the Zika virus. Meanwhile, we are spending truckloads of money on ships that don't float.…”