On the recordMay 22, 2014
I wanted to comment about the work done on the National Defense Authorization Act. I know Chairman McKeon has done a tremendous amount of work. I know, from dealing with him during this work on the defense budget, it has been extremely difficult for him. I remain concerned where we have an administration that has kept our people in Afghanistan with less than favorable rules of engagement, where we have people in harm's way and constantly being called on to be alert, be in positions where they may be in harm's way; and, yet, the authorization ends up being $45 billion less than the President's own projection for fiscal year 2014 budget request, and $30.7 billion less than that, that was enacted for fiscal year 2014 in the NDAA Public Law 113-66. Back in the summer of 2011, I told our leadership that the deficit was a major problem, of course, as all of our conference realizes, as those on the other side of the aisle used to talk about until they got into the majority and blew the lid off the deficit. To raise the debt ceiling, set up a supercommittee that I knew was going to fail, said it was going to fail because the Senate Democrats would never allow an agreement because they wanted to be able to blame Republicans for not getting a deal. The mainstream media always buys whatever they said, even when they shut down the government, as Harry Reid did last September 30th, by refusing to take up even the most extreme compromises that this House was willing to make.…
