Gerald Kleczka: “we are not currently at war with another nation and the Cold War has been over for more than a decade. But we alone…”

“we are not currently at war with another nation and the Cold War has been over for more than a decade. But we alone already spend more on our military than the 21 countries with the next largest defense budgets combined. Our military spending is greater than the total defense budgets, added together, of Russia, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Italy, India, South Korea, Brazil, Taiwan, Israel, Spain, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Turkey, Mexico, Kuwait, and the Ukraine. Nonetheless, before us today is a bill, H.R. 1588, FY04 Defense Authorization, that would authorize an increase of $7.6 billion for a total defense budget of $400.5 billion, the highest in this country's history. This legislation authorizes $3.5 billion for the F-22 Raptor, an air superiority fighter designed to fight the Soviet Union. This program has seen continual cost overruns and encountered technical problems, and now represents the most costly jet fighter ever built. However, the other fighters that the F-22 is designed to replace continue to perform admirably and the only countries that possess aircraft that even come close to parity with our existing fighters are our allies in NATO, as well as Russia. Given this program's troubled history, it is likely to balloon in cost even more, and is hardly a bargain for our military and taxpayers.”