Political Quotes

“60 years ago, President Dwight David Eisenhower warned Americans about the unwarranted influence of the military-industrial complex. He told us of the relentless defense interests that would use their lobbying muscle to keep money flowing into the coffers of the Pentagon. While our adversaries and competitors have changed in the past six decades, the military-industrial complex's revolving door is as well greased as Ike warned our country. Today, Congress is set to vote to increase the already-bloated defense budget in the same year that we ended our longest war--the latest proof that the military-industrial complex is alive and well and banking on a pay raise, all while Americans struggle to afford groceries and gasoline. Here is the simple truth about the defense budget we are debating this week: We plan to spend $768 billion to fuel the military- industrial complex even in our moment of relative peace. Yet many in this Chamber are relentlessly attacking the Build Back Better act despite this spending bill being four times its size in new spending. What we are hearing in this Chamber this week are Cold War echoes-- words that sound like talk of the bomber and the missile gap with the former Soviet Union that drove an arms race that brought us to the brink of annihilation. Our top military general recently called China's most recent hypersonic test a ``Sputnik moment.'' That is our top military general.…”