Ed Markey: “the amendment offered by Representative Tierney and myself is quite simple. It would strike $74.5 million from the…”

“the amendment offered by Representative Tierney and myself is quite simple. It would strike $74.5 million from the ``Defense-Wide Procurement'' funds in this defense appropriations act and return $29 million to the Defense Health Program. The only program that it would reduce is the National Missile Defense System. Sixteen years ago we started this debate on a national missile defense system. Back then we had fanciful names for the components of the proposed missile defense system. We had ``brilliant pebbles'' to blind our senses with the wonders of our technological imagination. Of course, you had to have rocks in your head to believe it. This system was so imaginative we even named it ``Star Wars''. This umbrella of hydrogen-bomb-pumped lasers and kinetic kill vehicles was supposed to protect us against a full-scale Soviet nuclear missile attack. Well, Mr. Chairman, there was a reason the name was based on Hollywood--the system was--and is--pure fiction. With time--and lots of money spent--only the names have changed. Today we are talking about procuring hardware for upgrades to early warning radars and X-band radars. Hardly the exotic names of the past. But the system is no less fanciful, just less effective. No longer are we trying to protect against thousands of warheads. Now we hope to shoot down just ten or twenty. It seems the more money we spend, the less we plan to hit.”