David Obey: “I do not think I will take the full 5 minutes, but I did want to take some time to suggest that this bill today has two…”

“I do not think I will take the full 5 minutes, but I did want to take some time to suggest that this bill today has two fundamental problems: First of all, it is, in my view, reflective of a view that somehow the United States is under serious duress and, in fact, is falling behind potential military competitors. The fact is, it is not. The fact is that right now we spend two-and-a-half times as much as all of our military adversaries combined and this bill will add to that lead, not subtract from it. Second, I would like to point out that a little known fact about the defense budget is that while both parties are talking about proceeding to balance the budget in 7 years, the fact is that by the seventh year the defense budget, reflected by the budget resolution that passed yesterday, the majority party's defense budget, is in fact lower than the budget provided by the President. Yet, at the same time that these outyear numbers are substantially lower than the President's, for the first 2 or 3 years this committee is insisting on adding billions of dollars above the President's request. That makes absolutely no sense.”