Joe Cunningham: “there are a few people in this Chamber that all of us respect and one is the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton). I…”

“there are a few people in this Chamber that all of us respect and one is the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton). I love the gentleman. He is a descendent of Daniel Boone. I also agree with the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) that this is very, very noteworthy. As a matter of fact, the individuals that spoke in favor of his amendment, I cannot see a one of them that is antidefense, that is not there to help our men and women. We asked for $362 million, which the gentleman helped us get for ship repair. The Navy switched that over to nuclear and carrier refueling and then gave us $171 million shortfall in ship repair. So the mismanagement within the services is a problem as well. If we look at the basics of the things that have been mentioned here today, this does not even scratch it. And if I had the ability to override the other body and the Senator in the other body, I think we would see all of us supporting that. But we do not have the 60 votes in the other body. Many of us spoke about, including my friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich), not going along with Izetbegovic in Bosnia. When we talk about the U.S.S. Cole, it was those Mujahadeen and Hamas that surrounded Izetbegovic in Sarajevo that blew up the U.S.S. Cole. And the 124 deployments that have put us into this position, that many of us fought against, including many of my colleagues on the other side, have put us in this hole.”