Political Quotes

“Mr. President, to Members of the body on both sides of the aisle, I appreciate the effort to produce a bipartisan national defense authorization bill. I think our committee did a good job in coming up with a bipartisan bill, but as a body and as a country we haven't done enough and this is a chance to rectify what I think is an incredibly big problem. We are at war--at least I think we are. We have been at war for the last 15 years. I cannot tell you how hard it has been on the all- voluntary force. I was in the Air Force for 33 years. I retired last year. I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think I have been to Iraq and Afghanistan 37 times in the last decade. I have seen incredible sacrifice by those who serve our Nation to defend us against another 9/11 and what their families have gone through. As a nation and a Congress, what have we done to those who have been fighting this war? We are on track to have the smallest Army since 1940. Sequestration--across-the-board budget cuts that have taken almost $1 trillion out of the defense budget--is insanity and nobody seems to give a damn about fixing it. None of us have to go and fly in planes that are about to fall out of the sky. None of us are commanders of troops and having to use duct tape to get through the day. None of us have to worry about going over and over and over to the war zone because the war is getting worse, not better.…”