[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 105 (Monday, June 26, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S9024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I want to take a moment or two to respond 
to something that was said earlier in morning business when the Senator 
from North Dakota gave his usual eloquent discourse on populism, and 
the fact that he used phrases that Republicans have a philosophy where 
the rich are paid too little and the poor are paid too much. That was 
in reference to a budget that will eliminate the deficit by the year 
2002.
  It is always difficult to stand on the floor and defend an effort to 
really do something about the deficit because those individuals who 
want to continue the social programs, who want to continue business as 
usual, will stand up and make it look as if those of us who are trying 
to be fiscally responsible, those of us who recognize that it is not 
any of us in this Chamber but future generations that are going to have 
to pay for all of this fun we are having right now, that somehow we are 
not acting responsibly. I think the elections of November 8, 1994, were 
very clear warning signals that we are going to change, we are not 
going to have business as usual in America.
  But the thing that disturbed me more than anything else that was said 
by the distinguished Senator from North Dakota [Mr. Dorgan], was the 
reference to a national defense system, national missile defense 
system, star wars. This is the first warning sign that I have heard in 
this cycle that we are going to have in fact opposition, people wanting 
to make it look like those of us who want to have a national missile 
defense system, somehow we are looking up in the stars in a Buck Rogers 
kind of syndrome, that it is something that is very expensive and 
something we cannot have.
  I would like to suggest, Mr. President, that we have an opportunity 
to prepare now to defend ourselves against a future national missile 
attack. It was not long ago that Jim Woolsey, who was the chief 
security adviser to the President of the United States, President 
Clinton, made the observation that our intelligence informs us that 
there are between 20 and 25 countries that either have or are 
developing weapons of mass destruction--either nuclear, chemical, or 
biological--and are developing the missile, the means of delivering 
those warheads.
  This is a very frightening thing, when we stop and realize that we in 
America do not have a missile defense system. Most people think we do 
have it somehow, but we do not.
  Many of us can remember what happened back in 1972 when the ABM 
Treaty was agreed to, that back in 1972 it was a treaty predicated on 
the assumption that there were two superpowers in the world, the Soviet 
Union and the United States. I suggest, Mr. President, that there are 
many of us who believe that the threat out there to the United States 
security could be greater now than it was back then because at least 
then we could identify who the enemy was. And now, as Jim Woolsey said, 
there is a proliferation, a number of countries that have this 
technology, and many countries that have already demonstrated they are 
not friends of United States are getting a missile system to deliver 
warheads.
  So I believe that we must be very cautious and not use the normal 
populace, partisan patter that you hear around this Chamber so much 
when people start talking about star wars. It is not star wars. We have 
an ability--and we demonstrated that we are going to use the current 
Aegis system that we have a $50 billion investment in--to have a high-
tier missile defense system that we will be desperately needing in the 
very near system.
  So I hope my colleagues will refrain from taking political advantage 
of the situation we are in by not saying exactly what it is, and that 
is that there is a threat out there and the United States of America 
does not have a national missile defense system.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

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