David Obey: “This amendment essentially cuts 331 million from the bill to prevent the production of 9 B-2's that the Pentagon has not…”

“This amendment essentially cuts 331 million from the bill to prevent the production of 9 B-2's that the Pentagon has not even asked for. It would reduce the deficit by $214 million. It would add $105 million for the air National Guard KC-135 reengining and it would add $12 million for Army breast cancer research. It would also remove a major veto threat to this bill and we would wind up spending less money. What I am trying to do is to remove a $27 billion fiscal time bomb which is tucked into this bill. I want to simply point out that the cost of these B-2 bombers by the time they are fully purchased, by the time they are fully equipped, will drive the rest of the defense budget into a squeeze which I do not believe thoughtful Members will want to see it experience. To put this in perspective, this is a bomber which has been turned down by some 20 different studies. Five different times the proponents of proceeding with the B-2 have asked for studies to try to object to the fact that four different Secretaries of Defense have tried to limit the number of B-2's that we are buying to 20.”