Political Quotes

“This is not an across-the-board cut. This would, if it passed, have the Subcommittee on Appropriations, in conference, have the authority to allocate where to reduce what they ask for. And if they have trouble fingering places, I will suggest some: Funds for Bosnia; the funds for the expansion of NATO beyond our fair share. Maybe they are even talking about not sending 100 officers over here to help us do our job. The point is that we are talking about the largest single operational budget in the Federal Government, and we are saying, at a time of great austerity, at a time when we are admittedly cutting back on programs that are of great value in a number of areas, we would ask the Defense Department to participate. A number of Members here have said that they think we are overextended. We have passed legislation in this House that has said to the administration, cut back, you are overextended here, you do not belong over there. They will continue to ignore those with absolute impunity until this House does the one thing it can do to restrain excessive interventionism, and that is reduce the funding.”