Randall Cunningham: “It was not just the Air Force, it was the Commandant of the Air Corps and the Chief of Naval Operations, and they are…”

“It was not just the Air Force, it was the Commandant of the Air Corps and the Chief of Naval Operations, and they are exactly right. The funding levels for 1995 they are looking at, they can get by, but if we really do get in a conflict, and the Vice President, Al Gore, in his statement 'Reinventing Government' made the statement that the cuts were based not on what we really needed to fight two wars, as it was supposed to be, but on the $127 billion Clinton cut. Second, Dr. Warner, who did the Bottom-Up Review, in our hearing before the Committee on Armed Services also alluded to the fact that it was based on the $127 billion administration cut, not on what we need. Even if you are doing similar to close to simultaneous wars, say it was Somalia, say that we got involved with Bosnia or India, or any of the other countries that could be a potential threat, to me that would send a signal, for example to North Korea, to come down across the parallel. What this cut is doing is risking not only the United States but it is risking the world. Madam Speaker, what this cut is really doing, it is not only risking the national security of the United States, but it is risking the security of the world, whether it is Bosnia, Somalia, or other parts we might get into. Equally critical, the $50 billion cut or shortfall that we have under the Bottom-Up Review is an administrative or accounting, because they did not charge inflationary rates, but we are still short that.”