Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the defense bill before us today is a solid package. It represents a bipartisan effort on the part of the committee and a delicate balance between funding our readiness today and preparing for the wars of tomorrow. We are hearing a familiar ring with regard to defense spending. Force structure and end strength have been slashed by over 30 percent. Overseas commitments have increased significantly and are pushing our troops to their limits. Procurement funding is down by over 70 percent. And our vehicles, ships, and aircraft inventories are too old and cannot be sustained at current production rates. On the other hand, we are now, in the context of imminent major military challenges, in a relatively benign period. The end of the cold war has allowed us to reduce force structure and end strength by roughly one-third and procurement by well over half. Despite this, we are still spending at 85 percent of the average cold war peacetime spending levels, and we will continue to do so at least through 2003-- 85 percent.”