Jim Inhofe: “first of all, the comments that were made by my friend from Florida are right on target. I recall--actually, it was 30…”

“first of all, the comments that were made by my friend from Florida are right on target. I recall--actually, it was 30 years ago--a book that was written by Anthony Kubek called, ``Modernizing China.'' Everything he said at that time that was going to happen in the future has now happened with the leaders and the freedoms that China has never known. Then, when you go and see what is happening all around the world right now with China and in the South China Sea--they are building all of these islands down there. Our allies believe they are preparing for World War III, so that is really serious stuff. Anyway, we are going to be voting in a few minutes on moving forward on the bill that every year, arguably, is the most significant bill of the year. It has passed now for 57 consecutive years. We are anxious to get to the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act. It is our hope, as we consider the bill this week, that we can have an open amendment process, just as we did in the committee markup, where we considered 300 bipartisan amendments. I am joined here by Senator Reed, who is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. We are all in agreement on a lot of things, one being an open amendment process. We want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to offer their amendments. Unfortunately, with the rules of the Senate, it is sometimes difficult because people can object to anything, and then everything stops.…”