Political Quotes

“Mr. President, let us make it very clear, this is the 12th straight year that we have seen reductions in the defense authorization bill, the spending for defense. I appreciate my friend who is offering this amendment, and I am not going to stand here and in any way speak against the intent which may be to somehow augment education. But I will stand here steadfastly and say you must not take a dime out of this defense authorization bill. We do not have a dime that can go to anything else. We have gone too far too fast in the reductions of our defense. When we held a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mr. President, we had members of the administration testifying, including General Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of Defense, Dr. Bill Perry, who are both tremendous men. I asked General Shalikashvili about the issue of procurement, ``Have we added too much money on procurement and what has our history been of that? General Shalikashvili,'' I asked, ``let me ask you this with regard to the procurement issue, which is a very key issue. As I talk to military personnel in the field, they consider this a lifesaving situation.”