Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, everyone knows what a lemon car is, but we have a fleet of lemon ships. They are called littoral combat ship, except it is a misnomer because it is not survivable in combat. Today, we are calling them the leaking, cracked ships, and let me tell you why. If the LCS was a car sold in America today, they would be deemed lemons, and the automakers would be sued into oblivion. But in the Federal Government it is big business as usual--$50 billion over the lifetime of the program. That is a lot of rotten lemons. My concerns and warnings about the LCS go back a decade, along with the late Senator John McCain. It is costing taxpayers billions of dollars, yet has failed to produce a reliable ship. So I was stunned and outraged to see that the proposed 2023 defense appropriations bill only decommissions four LCS, when it should be nine, as President Biden and the Navy have proposed. The annual cost of five LCS ships could pay for eight childcare centers in the military, four barracks, or a $1,000 bonus for every enlisted E-3 and below. The LCS program's legendary failures have made it the subject of two Government Accountability Office reports. Those reports found each LCS costing an astounding $59 million a year to operate. Or actually, not to operate because they are, more often than not, in dock because they aren't working.…”