Political Quotes

“in regards to what the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) just said, I am surprised at the new chairman. He is so lenient about getting time out of him. Usually our bill moves much faster than this. I thought he learned. Let me say the defense part of this and maybe the rest of it is probably the most bipartisan bill one could ever find. The gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young), the gentleman from California (Chairman Lewis), and I have been traveling to these various bases. We found shortages every place we went, all kinds of problems that they brought to our attention that needed to be rectified. We found problems so severe that many of the units that were on their way to Iraq were C-4. The gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), my good friend, the hero from Vietnam, knows what I am talking about when I say C-4. I am talking about they are not ready to go to combat because the equipment is so bad. As a matter of fact, the equipment was so bad at one base, and I think it was Fort Stewart where the troops did not have radios to train with, did not have small arms ammunition, did not have mortar ammunition to train with, and that means that when they get there, they are not at the cutting edge of where they should be. Now they get equipment when they get there, and that overcomes the C-4. So the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) and I, what we did was put $2.3 billion into the budget.…”