On the recordMay 17, 2012
And I rise in support of my amendment. Here's what my amendment says: Why are we building a new nuclear bomber? It's 2012. The B 52s that we have--93 of them--are going to last until 2040. The B 2s we have are going to last until 2058. That's when they begin to retire. Now, of all the things America doesn't need right now, it's a brand new nuclear bomber. We're talking about cutting Medicare or Medicaid out here on the floor, there's not enough money to invest in research to find the cure for Alzheimer's, but we need a new nuclear bomber for $18 billion? It makes no sense. It's insane. We don't even have any more targets to hit them with. Every single nuclear submarine we have has 96 independently targetable nuclear warheads on board. That's 96 cities in the Soviet Union, the bombs in the Soviet Union would destroy, 96 cities in China destroyed by one submarine. We already have 93 B 52s. We have 20 B 2s. We have ICBMs ready to launch. And they want to build a new bomber, a nuclear bomber with nuclear bombs. By the time the new nuclear bomb arrives, there will be no place to hit. All the old bombers, all the nuclear submarines will have hit all the targets. The boom we should be listening to is the baby boom. We need money for Medicare. We need money for Medicaid. We need money for Social Security. We need money to invest in finding the cure for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.…
