On the recordSeptember 24, 1998
I predict that this 10-year period in time, the 1990s, will go down in history as the worst period of time in terms of undermining our national security. In the next century, people are going to realize that the economic savings that were generated during this administration were all done on the backs of our men and women in the military. While we have been cutting defense, and now we are in the fifteenth consecutive year of real defense cuts, we have a Commander in Chief who has increased our deployment rate to 26 in the past 6 years. That compares to 10 in the previous 40 years. And none of these 26 deployments were budgeted for. None of them were paid for. The $15 billion in contingency costs to pay for those came out of the hide of the men and women who serve in the military, their readiness, their modernization, and the research technology necessary to meet the threats of the 21st century.
Source
govinfo.gov
