Byron Dorgan: “I have great respect for him, as well as the work of Senator Nunn, the ranking member. I agree with much of what they do…”

“I have great respect for him, as well as the work of Senator Nunn, the ranking member. I agree with much of what they do in their work in the Senate. I think both of them have a good grasp of defense issues. Therefore, it is with reluctance I take the floor today to say I am going to be voting against both the Defense authorization bill and the Defense appropriations bill. Again, let me say that I think much of the work they do is work that is extraordinarily important for our country and for the defense of our country, but there are some things in this legislation that give me some real pause, one of which I simply cannot overcome. That is the issue of star wars. I call it star wars; I know others will call it the antiballistic missile system or other names. No matter what you call it--an ABM system; star wars; or SDI, space defense initiative--it is in this legislation, an initiative at this time when we are up to our neck in debt in this country, when we have very serious fiscal policy problems, and when we are tightening our belt and cutting back on job training, saying we will make it more expensive for people to send their kids to college because we will cut back on student loans, we will make deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. We are told we do not have the money. At that very moment we now say, by the way, all of that concern about spending, do not pay much attention to what we were saying there.”