Jerry Lewis: “I don't stand to take credit for all kinds of extra earmarks. But as long as we are talking about it, the gentleman has…”

“I don't stand to take credit for all kinds of extra earmarks. But as long as we are talking about it, the gentleman has heard the Predator mentioned a number of times. I think the gentleman knows that the bureaucrats don't necessarily have all the answers, whether those bureaucrats happen to be in the Education Department or they happen to be in the military. Back when we were looking at the Predator, the idea of an unmanned aerial vehicle, it was pretty clear that the Air Force was much more interested in programs where planes were flown by men than in new ideas. The Predator came along, an unmanned aerial vehicle concept, and I had to take credit, my goodness, credit that year when this became implemented for some $40 million of an earmark to advance the RDT&E, the research and development. If that $40 million had not been appropriated, Predator would not have been available in Bosnia. Now, since then Predator has gone forward and done many a thing, and I suppose I should be taking credit for hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of earmarks. But in the meantime, the military does not have all the answers to all the ideas, and, indeed, neither does the Department of Education.”