Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this measure as currently drafted. I do so with true regret because hidden inside all of the rhetoric and surplusage of this measure as drafted is, in fact, the foundation of a solid and responsible bill to fund our national defense as our chair and ranking member have both highlighted. This is very regrettable overall since our national defense funding measure has largely escaped these diversions and focused on national defense. However, instead, we have before us today, in reality, a proposal that is crippled by avoidance of inconvenient realities, sacrifice of long-term goals for short-term expediency, pandering to extreme viewpoints, and to my friend and colleague, the chair's comments in opening statements, too narrow, I believe, a definition of warfighting and military readiness. Especially telling in all of this is that in virtually all of these categories, our military disagrees with the deletions, with the cuts, and with the initiatives. Our military has a broader view. Our military, I believe, does have the proper perspective on the panoply of efforts that are required for true warfighting and military readiness. There are many, many examples. We are going to hear about them. We already have. We are debating them in amendments, but I want to highlight two that are perhaps small in the big picture but that I think illustrate exactly what the issue is that we face with this particular measure.…”