Political Quotes

“I rise to speak on the Toomey amendment. I want to reiterate what my colleague from Illinois said about this amendment. Senator Durbin chairs the Subcommittee on Defense. He recently took this over with the passing of Senator Dan Inouye. Senator Dick Durbin has now assumed the Chair. It is a committee we are now looking at funding. I too have met with the Department of Defense--whether it was Secretary Hagel, Deputy Secretary Ash Carter. I have talked things over with General Dempsey. When they talk about what are the big-buck expenditures in defense--is it guns? Is it bullets? Is it body armor? Is it tanks or planes? The exploding costs are in the area of military personnel. We have to pay our people, so we agree with that. Then there is the issue of providing health care. Wow, after a 10-year war where we have asked too much from too few for too long, people are coming back with the permanent wounds of war. All are coming back with the permanent impact of war. Health care problems are showing up among them. But to my surprise--I was not surprised about that--I was surprised that one of the largest expenditures in DOD is energy. I already knew that DOD is the Federal Government's largest energy consumer and that the Congressional Research Service notes that since early 1990, the cost of buying fuel has increased faster than any other DOD budget category. Isn't that a surprise, that it is increasing faster than health care?…”