Joe Cunningham: “It is well known that people have a right to either support national security or they do not. That does not make them a…”

“It is well known that people have a right to either support national security or they do not. That does not make them a socialist. A difference of opinion does not make them categorized by a political spectrum. But over a period of time, those that oppose national security, in my opinion, have hurt the ability of our troops to fight and wage a conflict that our President and this Nation offers. This particular amendment does not make one a socialist. This particular amendment does not mean that one wants to hurt defense. But over a period of time, if historically a person opposes the advancement of defense, that is their right. But I have the right, also, to disagree with that. And in this case, I strongly disagree. It was my own self that opposed the F-22 even last year. If the gentleman would say that because I opposed the amendment last year I was a socialist, I would agree, too. That is not the case. But it is the case that I would make that our troops are hurting. They have been exposed to 149 deployments. Over $200 billion has come out of the defense bill. The White House has cut defense in the past. And all of these accumulated have caused a lack of training, older machines, poor retention, and the things that we are trying to address in this bill. And at the same time, there is a very definite threat out there. Those were the points I was attempting to make.”