Political Quotes

“I want to be extremely careful in my response. I will be meeting with the Secretary of Defense in about an hour's time. I want to clarify the chairman's question by asking it directly to him and providing the Senate, this afternoon, as this debate continues, a clear response to the chairman's question. If I might add a bit here about this process, the administration uses certain inflation assumptions in building its budget, including its defense budget, to assure that the Government can buy the goods and services it needs. If inflation is lower than anticipated, the budget request is a little higher than needed to buy the required goods and services. When a midyear review determines the inflation rate is lower than anticipated, the Secretary of Defense identifies budgeted funds that are no longer required as a result of the inflation--they refer to it as a bonus. Since they are deemed to be excess, there is no programmatic impact resulting from the inflation savings being used. What happens if the new inflation assumptions are wrong and savings do not materialize? This borders on the Senator's question. Won't programs be affected then? Inflation assumptions are just that: assumptions made based on the best information available at the time. The information used during the midyear review is more recent and provides a better basis for inflation assessments than those made almost a year ago when the 2003 budget was being built.”