On the recordJune 1, 2023
I can assure my friend from South Carolina that when Senator Cotton reaches the floor, I will yield to him because he is time-constrained. What I want to say is what I have been saying all along this year since the Biden budget came out. The world is in the most dangerous situation we have seen since World War II, and this Biden budget, which is now enshrined in this debt ceiling bill, is woefully inadequate. It amounts to a cut in defense capability. It sounds like an increase. You can call it an increase. But inflation is running at 7 percent, and so we will have to increase defense spending by that much simply to keep up with what we did last year, and we would have to increase by several billions more in order to give us the capability we need to prevent war in the Pacific. So I just have to say that the fact that this is being called a victory by some people on our side of the aisle is absolutely inaccurate. Pundits around the country have called this budget amount inadequate, and now, for some reason, because it is part of an agreement the Speaker has made, it is being applauded. The numbers don't lie. I will tell you this. I will say this to my friends. We have 3 or 4 years to get ready for the time when Xi Jinping, the dictator President-for-life in communist China, says he wants to be ready for a war against the United States, a war to take over the island of Taiwan.…
