Political Quotes

“I appreciate my colleague's comments; and, frankly, I don't disagree that it is arbitrary. I would argue that perhaps how we got to this 800,000 was not by anybody doing a great deal of planning either, so perhaps that is arbitrary. But, you know, if you want someone to start to be more efficient, you have to set some goals. You have to set some targets. This number has been growing, and growing steadily for years. Probably for decades, but it has certainly been growing for years. It has been unchecked. There has been no real review or evaluation of it. What I am trying to do here, and I am not arguing that there is anything scientific to the 1 percent, but it is to say: Let's start to get this under control. Let's start to evaluate this. And you know what? If we need to reevaluate it, we can reevaluate it. But let's say to the Department of Defense: You know what? This is a lot of people. We think that you can get by with less. I have talked to a number of uniformed personnel who believe a lot of these people actually get in their way, and they would much prefer that some of them were not there because they actually create a bureaucracy that interferes with the ability of the uniformed people to accomplish their mission. So what this amendment is trying to do, it is saying: Let's get into this and let's set a target and let's see if we can't get there, and let's see if we can't save some money along the way. I reserve the balance of my time.”