Steve Israel: “Mr. Speaker, last year the Department of Defense spent $10.6 billion on basic energy costs. That is what it costs the…”

“Mr. Speaker, last year the Department of Defense spent $10.6 billion on basic energy costs. That is what it costs the military to fuel itself. Of that, the Air Force spent $4.7 billion, about half on one thing: fuel for its airplanes. With this $8 trillion debt, we have to fund the defense budget. How do we do it? The gentlemen know well, we borrow the money from China. So here is what we are doing: We are borrowing money from China to fund defense budgets to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to fuel our Air Force to protect us from China and the Persian Gulf. This is not just an energy policy, it is a national security vulnerability. We will balance our budgets, have fiscal responsibility and pursue energy independence so that we are safer and we are much better off in terms of our budgets.”