George H.W. Bush: “Well, you asked a very important question. First, on the defense cuts. I am very pleased that the way we have conducted…”

“Well, you asked a very important question. First, on the defense cuts. I am very pleased that the way we have conducted the foreign policy of this country permits us now to make sound defense cuts. We have won the cold war. Imperial communism, that's aggressive communism, wants to take over a neighbor that's on the ropes, is out of business. We've got people talking about peace in the Middle East. And we have different security responsibilities. I have proposed a budget that has $50 billion of defense cuts over the next 5 years. I ask you, though, to listen to this gentleman because we cannot make reckless cuts in our defense. Last year at this time I was faced with a terribly important decision: Do we send your sons and your daughters into combat halfway around the world on the ground? One of the reasons I made the decision the way I did is, I knew that when we made that decision, these young men and women would have the best possible equipment, the best possible support, the best logistics behind them, the fastest transport, and the best way to move them. And we did it, and they performed with magnificence. And that was Desert Storm that sent a message all across the world: The credibility of the United States means something. You see, Saddam Hussein never believed we'd do it. He was thinking back to Vietnam. He was thinking back to mixed signals out of the White House--wouldn't quite dare do it. And I'd say to those who remember Desert Storm, it wasn't quite as simple as it seems today. Go back and look at the debate a year ago about whether you commit the sons and daughters of New Hampshire to war. And I did it, took the full responsibility, and it worked out. But one of the reasons I made the decision with confidence was because of the levels of defense spending and knowing that we'd be able to move anyplace, go quicker, have the best equipment, and see them succeed. That still must be the hallmark of our defense. And my defense budget has the support of General Powell. It has the support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It isn't a political document. You listen to the raging debate around here from the extreme right and the extreme left, and all of them say, ``We don't need to keep up our defenses. We don't need to keep NATO strong. We can cut another $50 billion or $100 billion.'' And one of them was up as high as $150 billion. That is crazy. And they can do the campaign rhetoric, but I have the responsibility as the President of the United States to keep this country strong. And I'm going to do it. Now, the second one is much more complicated. The Defense Department does have some retraining programs. They've got some investment programs for, say, a Pease Air Force Base or whatever may happen in other installations around here. But I am troubled because I have no easy answer to it, frankly, for the guy that's this far along in his career, maybe he has 10 more to go, maybe he's been an aeronautical engineer who was laid off because we're not going to be able to keep the same level of spending. All I know is, obviously, for those who are out of work, we've got to keep the benefits going until they find work, and that's a given. But you're talking about higher levels. You're talking about something more sophisticated. So, I would say job training and have it as responsive as possible to the kind of changing technology that we've got. And that, of course, means adult education. It means things of this nature. But it is not an easy question, and I don't want to oversimplify it. It's a heartbreaking one, too, but we've got to cope with it. Yes, right back there. Discrimination”