On the recordMay 17, 2012
I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Again, the experts all say that if we delay this just 10 years, which is all I'm asking for, a 10-year delay, since the B 2s and the B 52s aren't beginning to retire until between 2040 and 2058. All that Mr. Welch and Mr. Conyers and I are saying is, if we delay it for 10 years, there's still plenty of time to build them if there's a need. But to begin to build new things right now with this era of tremendous budget deficits, when we should just be trying to find a way to reduce our deficits, you know, balance this budget, it's just wasteful. It's wasteful. And I just want to balance the budget. And if we're wasting money on projects like this, then we have no chance of doing anything about this deficit reduction. So, again, experience shows us that it only takes 16 years, not 30, to bring a new bomber from the drawing board to the runway. There are millions of families out there who are trying to get by with a car that's a few years old and just keep it going. The Air Force has already spent over $6 billion refurbishing all these planes. They plan on spending billions more on refurbishing them. There's no reason to believe they can't go out to the year 2060. This is not the year for us to be spending this money. I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. McKEON. I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo), my friend and colleague.
