Political Quotes

“when the House and Senate wrote their budget resolutions last year, Members were assured by the President of huge surpluses as far as the eye could see. The projected surpluses held great promise. They were expected to be large enough to address long-term solvency issues of Social Security and Medicare and for important priorities like a prescription drug benefit and education. Since then, most of the surpluses have evaporated because of last year's unaffordable Bush tax cut and the spending necessitated by the tragic events of September 11. The Republicans in the House want to cut taxes further and spend more, and be congratulated for their fiscal responsibility. While we all recognize the need to protect our country from international terrorists and rogue nations, the administration has requested a military budget of $396 billion in fiscal year 2003. This 1-year increase of $45 billion will be the largest increase in military budget authority since 1966 at the height of the Vietnam War. This increase alone, the $45 billion increase alone, is larger than the annual military budget of every other country in the world. In fact, the nations that President Bush called the ``axis of evil,'' North Korea, Iran and Iraq, our military budget will be 15 times the combined military budget of theirs. While this budget is being touted for fighting terrorism, the bulk of the funding is committed to buying weapons systems designed or conceived during the Cold War.”