Political Quotes

“I strongly support the Ryan-Kucinich amendments to cut construction funds for the National Ignition Facility. Every time this project comes before us, its costs rise and its scientific rationale grows more dubious. Criticism of NIF has come from groups as diverse as the Friends of the Earth and the Armed Services Committee. This project has already sucked up billions of taxpayer dollars while endangering our environment and sabotaging efforts to reduce nuclear proliferation. The National Ignition Facility represents the flagship of the Stockpile Stewardship nuclear weapons program. That is no great honor. This project, together with National Missile Defense, symbolizes the American failure to lead the way on global nuclear arms control. If the National Ignition Facility continues to fail to achieve its stated goal of ignition, it will remain a financial quagmire that has depleted badly needed financial resources. If it succeeds, it threatens to send the arms race spiraling to an ever higher level. Now is the time to seriously evaluate this program. We should not put more money into construction for a project that is neither necessary nor productive. This project is now approximately one billion dollars over budget. It is 5 years behind schedule. Ultimately, there are economic, geopolitical, and environmental reasons to oppose continued construction of the National Ignition Facility. Economically, NIF is over budget and over due.”