Joel Hefley: “in his State of the Union Address, Clinton told us that as long as he is President, the military will be the best…”

“in his State of the Union Address, Clinton told us that as long as he is President, the military will be the best equipped, best trained, and best prepared fighting force on the face of the Earth. No more cuts, he stood right there and said. But actions speak louder than words. Just a few short weeks have passed, and yesterday the Secretary of the Army said what Clinton really meant to say was no more cuts beyond what he had already planned to cut. So much for the Clinton credibility. Defense is back on the chopping block, this time to cut personnel by 181,000. The Army, of course, takes the biggest hit. For a decade now the Defense Department has been the only Federal agency to see its budget cut. But look around you. We have got problems in Somalia, Communists with nuclear capability in Korea, and bloody violence in Bosnia. The cold war may be over, but we do not have the capability, given the numbers we are looking at now, to respond adequately to many of these challenges. Ronald Reagan believed in peace through strength. According to Solzhenitsyn, who is going back to Russia, he said that Ronald Reagan, with that belief, brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall. Mr. Clinton, do not tell us. Show us that you are committed to a military that will ensure the security of all Americans and our interests around the world.”