[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2419-E2420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 THE CLINTON DEFENSE POSTURE WILL RATTLE OUR MILITARY FOR YEARS TO COME

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                     HON. RANDY ``DUKE'' CUNNINGHAM

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 20, 1995

  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, newspapers being delivered across the 
country are hitting the doorsteps of military families hard enough to 
rattle their households. The papers, radio, and the television are 
carrying President Clinton's message that it is no longer worth the 
trouble to serve your country in the armed services.
  Mr. Speaker, this Congress has made the difficult choices that will 
take this Government to a balanced budget by 2002, while at the same 
time re-establishing the security of our 

[[Page E2420]]
Nation. Just this week, we sent the President H.R. 1530, a Defense 
Authorization bill that restores a reasonable quality of life for our 
military, sustains basic military readiness, reinvigorates the 
Pentagon's efforts to modernize weapons, and makes a downpayment on our 
effort to make the Pentagon run more like a business.
  The bill gets the Pentagon back into the business of defending our 
country, without a skyrocketing Defense budget.
  Despite the fact that this bill includes a long overdue 2.4-percent 
pay raise, a 5.2-percent increase in housing allowance for our troops 
and their families, and $35 million to educate children of military 
personnel, the newspapers now tell us that President Clinton will veto 
that bill.
  Any sergeant, colonel, admiral, or general will tell you that their 
most important asset is a well-trained and dedicated man or woman. 
Unfortunately, because of a declining quality of military life and 
number of broken Government promises, the rank and file soldier and 
sailor is becoming an increasingly rare asset.
  We have American soldiers and sailors trying to feed their families 
with food stamps. Some of the kids that the President is sending into 
harm's way in Bosnia are leaving their families behind in housing that 
is substandard. Clinton's historic 1993 tax hike not only forced more 
taxes on hard-working middle-income American families--despite a 
promise to actually cut taxes--it also delayed COLA's for military 
retirees by three-quarters of a year--breaking a promise that was made 
to many of those men and women while they served this country overseas 
and at war. The Defense Authorization bill fixes the Clinton COLA grab.
  The veterans, retirees, and active military families that I talk to 
every day tell me that they don't trust the government anymore. Fully 
half of this country's new military enlistees come from military 
families, and those families are beginning to tell their kids that it 
just isn't worth it. As a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, I dedicated 
my life and service to this country in exchange for a few promises of 
pay and benefits. If the Government, led by President Clinton, 
continues to break those promises and deny a reasonable quality of 
life, our military families will find it even more difficult to 
dedicate themselves to military service.
  Mr. Speaker, what the President is doing is wrong. I challenge him to 
change his ways and demonstrate a commitment to our men and women in 
uniform. At a time when he plans to send over 32,000 troops into war-
torn Bosnia, enactment of the Defense Authorization bill is a good 
place to start.

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