Political Quotes

“the Members of the House have already voted against the substance of this amendment. We voted almost 3-1 to add $4 billion to the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. That money was in response to a request by the services when we asked them this year, what do they have in unfunded requirements that is not in the President's budget? They gave us a list of $16 billion, including ammunition, spare parts, training, and, in some cases, replacement platforms, aircraft, and other things to fill in areas where the President had not funded the armed services. In response, we gave $4 billion on the emergency supplemental. We did not get that. The other body would not go along with that. But they did go along with an increase of our top line of $4 billion. This amendment would, basically, gut that and wipe out the will of the House that voted almost 3-1 to give more money to the military. Now, why did they do it? They did it because defense spending has been in decline for 13 years. We are spending approximately $100 billion less this year on national security than we did in 1985 in real dollars. Now, some people may say, well, we funded readiness accounts. We funded personnel accounts. Why can we not take money out the modernization accounts. I think the best reason is the 80 aircraft that have crashed in the last year and a half. For any Member that wants to know the essence of this debate, it is this list of crashes.…”