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2005 Ron Paul Chapter 52
Not linked on Ron Paul’s Congressional website.
Congressional Record [.PDF]
Bad Policy For Base Closings
25 May 2005
Mr. BRADLEY of New Hampshire.
Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. PAUL).
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
2005 Ron Paul 52:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this amendment.
2005 Ron Paul 52:2
Some Members wonder why I would support this amendment, considering
the fact that I am the most fiscally
conservative Member of Congress and
vote for the least amount of spending.
But I think this amendment is a good
amendment, and I think the closing of
these bases represents bad policy. I do
not have a base in my district that is
being threatened to be closed.
2005 Ron Paul 52:3
Let me tell Members why I think this is a mistake. First, I think the process
is very poor. I think we are ducking
our responsibility. To turn this responsibility
over to a commission and duck
the responsibility of facing up to making
tough decisions, I think, is something
we do too often. Too often in the
Congress, we do things we should not
be doing, and we forget to assume the
responsibilities we have. In this case, I
think we are not assuming the responsibility
to face up to making this tough
decision.
2005 Ron Paul 52:4
It is claimed we will save $5 billion a year on base closings. We spend $5 billion
a month in Iraq. We are spending
nearly a billion dollars in building an
embassy in Iraq. We are going to build
four bases in Iraq that are going to be
permanent, costing tens of billions of
dollars. I think we have our priorities
all messed up.
2005 Ron Paul 52:5
I think that it makes a lot more sense to keep a submarine base in Connecticut
and keep a deep seaport in
Ingleside, Texas, than it does to be
closing these down and at the same
time building bases up around the
world.
2005 Ron Paul 52:6
I think the savings issue is a red herring. Between 1995 and 2001, the last
base closing, $6.5 billion was spent, and
$6.1 billion was saved. So we are spending
more money than we are saving in
closing down these bases.
2005 Ron Paul 52:7
I have a quote here I want to read; it comes from a think tank, one of the defense
policy think tanks. This to me is
important. “The big story here is not
going to be saving money; the big story
is going to be preparing the force for
future threats by moving it to more
logical locations.” In other words, defending
our borders, protecting our
homeland, worry about defending this
country is less important than spreading
our troops and protecting the empire
and expanding the empire and exposing
us to greater danger.
2005 Ron Paul 52:8
This is an issue of policy. This is an issue of process, and this is a red herring
when you think you are saving
money. We are not going to be saving
money in this process. We are just
going to be giving an excuse to build
bases around the world.
2005 Ron Paul 52:9
This is the time that we ought to reassess our policies and how we spend
our money. This is why a 1-year delay
is a perfect time to take time, stand
back and figure out when we are going
to get our troops home, when are we
going to have a defense policy that defends
this country and our borders
rather than spreading ourselves so
thinly around the world and building
huge bases in foreign lands.
2005 Ron Paul 52:10
That, to me, is the real issue. I hope we take deep consideration and support
this amendment.
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