Political Quotes

“As we close general debate on the fiscal 1997 national defense authorization bill, I wonder what sort of message we are sending to the citizens of this country. For months the American public has heard nothing but the dangers of the growing deficit and the need to tighten our belts and balance the budget. Frankly, I could not agree more. Unfortunately, today we are considering a bill that adds $13 billion to the Pentagon's request. That is right, $13 billion more than the Pentagon asked for. The same Congress that shut down the Government twice in the name of balancing the budget is sending a Government agency $13 billion more than it wants. Congress is sinking $13 billion into defense, and we will not even be discussing the final cost to the defense budget during this debate because the Republican-controlled leadership has refused to put a single amendment in order that would cut this budget. We added $7 billion in the fiscal year. Now we are adding $13 billion in this fiscal year. The defense budget is half of all discretionary spending we have in this country. If half of discretionary spending, we are going to tell the Government they need to spend more, $20 billion over 2 years, how in the world are we going to make the investments in education, in student loans, in children? We are not making that investment because we do not have the courage to make the difficult choices when it comes to the defense budget in this country.”