Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I respect Senator Grassley very much. I respect Senator Simon, and Senator Exon. But I serve on the Armed Services…”

“I respect Senator Grassley very much. I respect Senator Simon, and Senator Exon. But I serve on the Armed Services Committee, and I think they are wrong on this issue. In fact, let us cut to the chase. We are not talking about allowing the President to come back in and certify that he needs more money. The President has said that he does not want the money. His budget came in $11 billion lower this year in real terms than it was last year, and that was after telling the American people in his State of the Union Message that he did not think we should cut defense spending any more. Mr. President, we have had testimony before the Armed Services Committee from every single high ranking military and civilian official in this administration; the President's own administration. Every chief of every service has said we cannot continue to train our forces and modernize our forces if we do not have the money to do it. This is the 12th straight year of declining defense spending; the 12th straight year. Weapons procurement is down 70 percent since 1985. It is proper after the cold war that we would draw down our military spending. But, Mr. President, we have gone far enough.”