Political Quotes

“I want to express my appreciation to Senator McCain and Senator Jack Reed for their leadership on the Armed Services Committee. It is unusual, indeed, and good for the Republic that both of them are Academy graduates--though, the Navy and Army Academies sometimes can be quite competitive. They get along very well and respect each other, and the committee has done a very good job. I understand there is some concern by some of our Members concerning the desire to spend more on nondefense money and perhaps use this bill as a hostage to force the Congress to spend more money on other pieces of legislation. I think that would be a very grievous mistake. I have served on the Armed Services Committee now for 18 years, for quite a long time on the Budget Committee. I have spent a lot of time looking at the challenges we face. I think the world has changed since the Budget Control Act was passed in 2011. In 2011, the President told us: Don't worry. We are pulling everybody out of Iraq and there are not going to be any more problems in Iraq. He did not mention ISIS. In 2011, we did not have the Russian invasion of Crimea. We did not have the continued vicious, violent fight in Syria. We did not have the chaos that is happening in Libya. We did not have the threat to the Iraqi Government's existence--we thought it was on the right path. We did not have the problem in Yemen. So this is just a different world.…”