Dennis Kucinich: “today, I rise to oppose the budget under consideration today. Some believe they must accept the President's request for…”

“today, I rise to oppose the budget under consideration today. Some believe they must accept the President's request for higher defense spending. Too many Members of Congress believe that a vote against higher defense budgets is tantamount to being ``weak on defense.'' But what they ignore is the fact that the President's defense number is weak on defense contractors. It gives nearly everything the contractors could want, and as I will show in a minute, it fails to make Americans safer. How does the V-22 tilt rotor--which has killed 30 Marines in a crash rate of 18 percent--make Americans any safer? Of course it doesn't. But spending $1.75 billion to procure it makes the contractor richer. How does the so-called National Missile Defense--which has not been shown to work, according to the DOD's own director of testing--make America any safer? It doesn't. But it does make the contractor richer. How does the F-22 airplane, which suffers from exorbitant cost overruns and offers little improvement over today's more than capable F-15, make America any safer? Again, it doesn't. But at a cost of $4.7 billion in this year's budget, the contractors will see great profits. Rather than buying a false idea of security by handing billions to defense contractors for hardware that doesn't work, can't work, or won't work to defend against the threats of today, let's buy the defense we do need and invest the rest in economy security. America needs jobs.…”