Trent Franks writes a piece for National Review Online:
Last week in the House Armed Services Committee, I voted for the National Defense Authorization Act. While H.R. 1585 meets many of the needs of our valiant men and women in uniform, I remain very concerned about the severe funding cuts it would make in critical missile-defense programs. I offered three amendments that would restore necessary funding for those programs including one that would restore the entire amount they slashed. However, the Democrats resolutely rejected them and even used procedural tactics to block a vote on an amendment our ranking member Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) offered stating that the sense of Congress is to develop and deploy a layered and robust missile-defense system capable of intercepting missiles in boost, midcourse, and terminal phases of flight.
Congress is obligated to ensure that the Department of Defense develops and deploys defensive capabilities that protect the American people, our war fighters, and our allies who want to work with us. Iran is expected to have missiles capable of reaching the U.S. homeland in less than eight years, North Korea continues to defiantly test long-range missiles, and proliferation throughout the Middle East is rampant. Despite these threats, H.R. 1585 cuts almost $800 million in funding that would help close the gaps in our missile defense system.
Yea, $800 million dollars seem like chump change compared to the $439 Billion for Defense spending FY 2007 but I guess Bush is swimming in the fact that we have a $2.77 Trillion budget for FY 2007, so what the who, let’s just argue for another $800 million