Political Quotes

“I think every Member should be proud to vote for this conference report. I think this report is a great manifestation of our ability to work in a bipartisan manner and do something that is important for the country... because today we live in a very dangerous world. That is extremely clear now. China is trying to step into the superpower shoes that have been left by the Soviet Union. Terrorism is becoming more deadly, more technologically capable, and we are seeing new challenges around the world; and against that backdrop we have cut defense dramatically. The defense force structure that we have today is just about half of what it was in 1992. We have gone from 18 Army divisions to 10; 24 active fighter air wings to 13; and as the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Sisisky) said, almost 600 ships down to 324 and dropping. Unfortunately, the half that we have left is not as ready as the full force that we had in 1992. We have a $193 million shortage in basic ammo for the Marines; a $3.5 billion shortage in ammo for the Army.”