On the recordSeptember 22, 2011
I see the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma in the Chamber, and I will defer to him momentarily. But I want to just say we need to understand what would happen if this production line of F-16s was shut down. The people who work on that production line would have to be let go or reassigned, actually exacerbating the high unemployment that we know is intolerably high. Once the production line of a sophisticated aircraft like the F-16 is shut down, we cannot decide, well, next year or the year after we are going to start up again-- unless we are going to add tremendously to the cost. It makes it far less likely it will ever get made because of the costs and because of the sheer magnitude of the effort of trying to get this production line back together and all the people who were employed there back to work. So that is why, to respond to the distinguished chairman of the Finance Committee, the manager of the bill, it is so important in terms of the timeliness. I agree there is a time for everything, but the time for this is now. I will just say, finally, as I indicated earlier, this is a bipartisan measure, as demonstrated by the 47 Senators who signed letters to the President urging the sale; 13 Democrats, along with the remainder being Republicans.…
