John Murtha: “Sometimes we put humanitarian aid, and we do not have the resources to get it to the people who really need it, and al…”

Every one of these earmarks are competitively granted under the regulations of the Defense Department. We depend on them to competitively check them over, and they do.

But I think in light of the recession and the economic difficulties we are facing it is not a good idea to pass legislation driving American industrial production back to the levels of 1920 at a time of potentially an economic depression.

You can see the hearings we've had on this issue. We felt that the missile defense cuts we made were because of schedule more than anything else, and I appreciate your determination to put it in. We'll take another look at conference, but…

I think that is a perfect example of the way things work. When we see something that we think is not as valuable as something else is, we change it.