Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman from New York, the distinguished ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, for yielding, and more importantly, for her great leadership to advance the values of our country in allocation of resources. And I always admire the work of Mr. Frelinghuysen, our distinguished chairman, as well. We may have a matter of disagreement here today, though. Mr. Chair, all of us, Members of Congress, all elected officials, people who serve in any office, take a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution, and that is an oath to protect the American people. Democrats, indeed all Americans, believe in a strong national defense. We believe in strong investments in our defense and in our brave men and women in uniform, in particular. But far from strengthening our security, the falsely inflated numbers in this spending bill will create uncertainty for our military and hollow out America's communities at home. We face serious threats in the world. We know that. Those threats demand serious consideration in Congress. We should be making serious decisions about our national security mission. What is our mission? What are the resources that we need? We don't want to spend more than we need, but we don't want to spend less, and we should not be posturing in the Defense bill with false numbers and no real answers about the mission that these dollars would fund.…”