Sunday, April 25, 2004

Who downsized the DoD?

Hint: not BC

President Bush in his State of the Union address on January 28, 1992:

"After completing 20 planes for which we have begun procurement, we will shut down further production of the B-2 bomber. We will cancel the small ICBM program. We will cease production of new warheads for our sea-based ballistic missiles. We will stop all new production of the Peacekeeper [MX] missile. And we will not purchase any more advanced cruise missiles…..The reductions I have approved will save us an additional $50 billion over the next five years. By 1997 we will have cut defense by 30 percent since I took office. "

Dick Cheney, secretary of defense, testifying before the Senate Armed
Services Committee on January 31, 1992.

"Overall, since I’ve been Secretary, we will have taken the five-year defense program down by well over $300 billion ….And now we’re adding to that another $50 billion….

Congress has let me cancel a few programs. But you’ve squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don’t fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements….You’ve directed me to buy more M-1s, F-14s and F-16s – all great systems….but we have enough of them. "

Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the same hearings, January 31,1992, testified about plans to cut Army divisions by one-third, Navy aircraft by one-fifth, and active armed forces by half a million men and women, to say noting of “major reductions” in fighter wings and strategic bombers.

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