Chuck Grassley: “I think the absence of comment on my rebuttal speaks for itself; my point is that under this bill these war bonuses are…”

“I think the absence of comment on my rebuttal speaks for itself; my point is that under this bill these war bonuses are 50 times as high as the men in the regular military get. Maybe the issue here is that we are not paying enough to regular Navy and Army, Air Force, and Marine personnel who are in harm's way on the battlefield and we ought to be paying them more than what we are, so that they are not getting 50 times less than what the seafarers are getting. But, at least we should not have this extraordinary difference between the two. So, consequently, in my closing seconds I remind people the conservative fiscal group Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Taxpayers Union, and the Citizens for a Sound Economy feel that this amendment is a justified amendment to bring commonsense budgeting, expenditure of money, commonsense use of the taxpayers' money to public policy on maritime issues.”