Political Quotes

“To frame what this debate is about, if I might ask my distinguished leader to let me interject on my time period, there is no stronger proponent of Reserve benefits than this humble Senator from Virginia. I served in the Marine Corps Reserve for some 12 years. I have some basic understanding of the tremendous and vital importance of our Reserve Forces and the need to try to give them as much possible care. Our bill has gone a long way to do that. I will go into the details of the $700 million--$300 million increased expenditure by the administration on behalf of the Reserve and $400 million by the Senate Armed Services Committee. However, my distinguished colleagues from South Carolina and South Dakota wish to add into this bill a $700 million cost. It is not offset in any way. Consequently, if this amendment is adopted and we go to conference, we have roughly $700 million already in the bill, which improves the life of the reservists, and on top of that, they are suggesting an additional $700 for this fiscal year, but the outyear bills are just enormous. It would be $700 million in the fiscal year 2005 and $5.7 billion over 5 years and $14.2 billion over 10 years. We are talking about a very significant, permanent entitlement for the reservists which is extremely costly. From where do those dollars come? Out of readiness, new equipment, and other needs of the Armed Forces. Essentially, that would be my basis for the objection. I yield the floor.”