Political Quotes

“as I listened to this debate, from time to time it sounded like a prayer meeting. Those who spoke critical of the Frank amendment kept using the familiar prayerful chant, ``Hallowed be thy Army''. And yet the simple fact of the matter is if the United States has any other nation in the world which is a threat, we are outspending that nation by at least 10 to 1. And if we combine all of the nations which we fear, the so-called rogue nations, all of their defense spending combined, the United States outspends them by a margin of almost 15 to 1. This comes down to some pretty tough choices, as budget debates will. Which is more important to America, the defense of Japan or the defense of American families against crime? Which is more important to America, building President Reagan's cold war relic, the Star Wars Program, or building a health care system which protects millions of uninsured working families? Which is more important to our future, better schools or better Trident missiles? Why in the world should we cut money to be spent on medical research so that we can turn around and give the Department of Defense the only increase over the budget deficit agreement of last year? Many argue that these are false choices. I disagree. As the chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee, I am facing a freeze in spending. It is not pleasant. I think the Department of Defense should be up against the same kind of a standard.”