Elizabeth Furse: “This program, this star wars program really makes me go ballistic. It is the biggest waste of taxpayers' money around.…”

“This program, this star wars program really makes me go ballistic. It is the biggest waste of taxpayers' money around. We have already spent $30 billion and we have nothing to show for it. What is even worse is, we are not the least bit safe with it, nor safer than we were. I am sure that all the new Members who put themselves out as security experts would like to tell us why they need star wars. But I want to tell you what a real expert has said. Former CIA Director William Colby said, "The most likely way a nuclear warhead will enter the United States in the next 10 to 20 years is in the hold of a tramp freighter." Instead of wasting billions that the SDI will require, some tough augmentation of antiterrorist intelligence would be a much more direct defense. Mr. Chairman, throwing money at star wars is like putting 10 locks on the front door when the back door is left open. Now, if we honestly want to revitalize national security, let us look at some places where we could make our own armed services feel more secure. We could pay them a living wage, for one thing, keep them off food stamps. We could live up to the contract that we signed with our veterans. We could live up to that contract. We could invest in things like college loans; 6 rac{1}{2} million students would invest back into this country, make it more secure economically. Star wars, star wars is a bill of goods.”