Political Quotes

“today we take up H.R. 7. If it were a song, we could get Vaughn Monroe to record it, and we would call it ``Boondoggles in the Sky.'' It is, in fact, spending additional moneys in addition to the $36 billion we have already spent on star wars, a system that does not work, and now we are starting to make a decision as to whether or not we put our dollars into troop training, into weapons modernization, into spare parts, or do we put the high priority on this budget-busting fantasy called star wars? Estimates are it would cost anywhere from $11 billion, with a B, to $97 bill, with a B, more dollars. Now this all came out of the Contract With America, and I say to my colleagues, ``You have to remember, ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about our national defense, yet the Contract With America is a political document written by lobbyists, written by special interests who were able to donate tens of thousands of dollars to their favorite political party in order to have a seat at the table.'' Now do we want those people setting our national defense policy, or do we want the Joint Chiefs of Staff to decide our defense policy? Do we want the political consultants and the lobbyists deciding our defense policies, or do we want the Secretary of Defense deciding what our policy will be?”