On the recordJuly 31, 2012
Reclaiming my time, and we may get a little more time, so don't run off. What you just had to say was really important. That's the kind of shock that the American people need to hear. We are going to take the most powerful and the strongest military force on Earth and hollow it out. And when you ask a commander to explain a hollow force, he will say, On paper, it will look like a combat brigade; but when you go down into the various jobs that must be done to have an effective fighting combat brigade, you will find there is no one in those jobs. Therefore, it is not an effective combat brigade. This is simple stuff using just people as an example. When you are using carrier forces and you are saying, We're going to take out the carrier and all their supporting ships--so we're going to give up a carrier and its ships or maybe two carriers and its ships to meet this sequester--you gut the Navy. {time} 2130 You gut the way they deliver force to a fight. They are one of our major deliverers of force to a fight. We take their claws away from them. The long-range Stryker and our new ships that are coming online, that as I understand it--and I forget what they call that--but that is gone. And the thing about the Air Force, my gosh, we have known for a long time, since I first came to this Congress, that we were behind the eight ball in developing the next generation of combat fighting aircraft. We were behind the eight ball.…
