If the Senator had incorporated figures from 1985 to the present, you would see an entirely different picture. By drawing the line at what might happen in the next 5 years, you are ignoring what happened in the last 10 years. There has been a dramatic decrease in real dollars in defense spending for the last 10 straight years. But that is not on the Senator's chart.
Discussing defense spending trends during a Senate debate.
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I believe the top of the list will be to reinforce the prime imperative for our Nation's Intelligence Community: to find the truth and to speak truth to power, without fear of political retribution.
One of the first things you can do--at this hearing, even--is to make a strong statement of support for professionalism in the IC and pledge that you will not tolerate politics influencing the analytical process.
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