Joe Cunningham: “it is amazing for those that talk about the defense budget is too much, that have never served in the armed services and…”

“it is amazing for those that talk about the defense budget is too much, that have never served in the armed services and seen hostility or even seen the odd end of a weapon, but yet we ask our men and women to do that every single day. Too much, but our budget is less than it was in 1930. I agree with the gentleman from Massachusetts. Bosnia, by the time we pull out in June, is going to cost the United States $12 billion. Does it come out of the social programs? No. It comes out of the already limited budget that we have before you today. I was asked why do we have aircraft that are crashing all over the United States? Listen to this. Air Force; high operational tempo; keeping aging planes going with a lack of maintenance, shrinking budgets; recent series of aircraft accidents according to Air Force officials. We are asking our men and women to fly these machines with one-half the flying time that they should. The maintenance on the aircraft is not being done. Yet we do not have the dollars in here to put into it because the dollars that we do have comes out to pay for Bosnia and other contingencies. In Haiti, Aristide is still there. Aideed's son is in Somalia. That costs billions of dollars; not out of social programs, but defense. Our committee has done a good job, but when people sit back and say that we are spending too much on defense, I would ask you to take a look at what our kids are doing. We have not bought a new Air Force fighter in 25 years.”