Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I came here to talk about a couple of issues on the Armed Services Committee that we are going to be facing. I only say to my good friend from Ohio that, yes, it is true that 9/ 11 occurred, and that we have al-Qaida out there, and there are the Taliban and other terrorists who want to kill everyone in this room and all throughout America, and that we were not in a position, financially, to go and defend our country after 9/11. I suggest that, after Pearl Harbor, the same situation took place. We didn't have time or the luxury of saying do we have the resources to go into this. But it was necessary and it did happen. Unfortunately, back in the 1990s, during the Clinton administration, the amount of money funding our military reduced by about 40 percent-- not just the money but resources too. It went down in terms of force structure, modernization, and operations and personnel, about 40 percent. There was kind of a euphoric attitude at that time, and people were saying that the Cold War was over and we no longer needed the military. I remember it so well. Then, of course, with the downgrading of the military and the peace dividend--we all remember the peace dividend--we would take the money that was going to go to the military and declare a peace dividend. Unfortunately, peace is not there, and 9/11 happened.…”