Ndaa

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I want to join my colleagues here on the Senate floor and talk about the importance of national security right here in the Congress of the United States. It is certainly one of our top priorities--protecting our Nation.

You know, President Ronald Reagan, who very much focused on the issue of peace through strength--and I am going to talk about that here in a minute--he once said:

We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that the tyrants are tempted.

``It is then that the tyrants are tempted.''

Tyrants like this guy--that is Xi Jinping sporting some cammies there with his military--tyrants like this guy and the tyrants around the world, they are tempted. They are tempted. They are on the march.

Look at this poster. That is Xi Jinping again in his military uniform. He kind of looks ridiculous, from my perspective, but, hey, they are on the march.

Putin, the terrorists in Iran, Kim Jong Un in North Korea, Venezuela, for goodness' sake--all the tyrants are working together, and they are on the march because the forces of freedom, as President Reagan said, have become weak.

You have heard it from my colleagues from North Carolina and Mississippi. We are on Armed Services together. By the way, they are both doing a great job. Let me make sure everyone can see that. Thank you. Yet this body has not taken up what we need to take up.

Just a couple of examples. Senator Budd was talking about the chaos in the Middle East, the appeasement of Iran by the Biden-Harris administration.

By the way, in my great State, just this past week, we had a joint Russian-Chinese strategic bomber patrol come into our ADIZ, into the kind of territorial airspace right near Alaska. It never happened before in the history of the country--Chinese and Russian joint bomber patrols, with fighters, coming into American airspace. The tyrants-- this guy--they are tempted. They have never done that before.

We heard about this. We all know this started due to the botched, chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that has sent the message of weakness.

Our wonderful military up in Alaska scrambled 10 fighter jets, fully armed, went and greeted the Chinese and the Russians, and said: Not today, guys. Turn around. Get out of our airspace.

But that was an escalation. It never happened before.

In the United States, we need to be stronger--much stronger than the Biden-Harris administration has enabled us to be.

So what can we do here on the Senate floor? Well, what we can do--and you have heard my colleagues talk about it--is that we can bring up the National Defense Authorization Act.

Like a lot of my colleagues who have been talking on the floor right now, I serve on the Armed Services Committee and was glad to work on this bill in a bipartisan way. I saw Chairman Reed here a minute ago on the floor. He did a great job, the chairman of the committee. We dramatically increased the top-line number that we need in terms of our military, the men and women who did the mission like they did last week in Alaska.

By the way, that is not an easy mission, flying 1,000 miles from their base to go intercept the Russians and Chinese with fighters. That was not an easy mission. Our military members did it really well.

But here is the issue: For so many of my Democratic colleagues, especially the majority leader, the military and bringing the NDAA on the floor is just not a priority. I mean, no offense to some of the people we are confirming right now, but these are not priorities. The time on the Senate floor reflects priorities, and the majority leader has kind of indicated: Hey, even though we have a good NDAA; even though our country is in peril right now, with the dictators on the march; even though the House already passed a version, the Senate--ah, forget it. We will do a tax judge. We won't bring the NDAA to the floor.

I know a lot of Democrats who worked hard--the Presiding Officer is one--who worked hard on this bill. A lot of my Democrat colleagues want the bill on the floor. For whatever reason, the Senate majority leader, during this dangerous time, will not bring a bipartisan bill strengthening our military to the floor.

Why won't he do that? Why won't he do that? Well, I will say there is a major, major difference between our parties--a major difference. What is that difference? Well, I like to proudly proclaim that the Republicans have been, are, and I hope will always be the party of peace through strength--peace through strength.

By the way, if you take a look at the Republican Party platform that we issued in Milwaukee at our convention a couple of weeks ago, it is all about returning to peace through strength. That is what the platform is about.

By the way, I took a look at the Republican Party platform in 2024 and the Reagan-Bush platform in 1984 on peace through strength. They are almost identical. That is what we believe in. That is what President Eisenhower believed in, Roosevelt, Reagan, and President Trump certainly did in his first term.

Here is the difference--you know, I know some of my colleagues don't like it when I say this, but, hey, the truth hurts--the Democrats are the opposite of this. When the Democrats have gotten into power in the White House, what do they do? They always come and cut defense spending, and they always undermine readiness. That is why the Senate majority leader is saying: I don't want to bring the NDAA to the floor. That is not our priority. We don't do that.

Let me just give a couple of examples.

Jimmy Carter cut defense spending in his first 3 years in office, and the Russians and Iranians took advantage of America's weakened posture.

Bill Clinton cut the size of our military by one-third, upending a decade of progress under the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.

Barack Obama slashed the Pentagon's budget by 25 percent during his second term. Our military readiness plummeted. I remember coming to the Senate in 2015. I was the ranking member on the Readiness Subcommittee and was shocked to see that 3 out of 58 brigade combat teams in the U.S. Army were at their highest levels of readiness--3 out of 58. Obama slashed readiness.

Of course, now we have the Biden administration. Every year Biden- Harris have been in office, they have cut defense spending. Every single year. This year's Biden-Harris budget shrinks the Army, shrinks the Navy, and shrinks the Marine Corps. That is a fact.

Next year's budget, in the next 2 years, if the Biden-Harris team is reelected, we will go below 3 percent of GDP.

Take a look at this chart. It shows it. These are the numbers on GDP. That is 15 percent during the Korean war; 8, 9, percent during Vietnam; the Cold War, Reagan era, 5, 5\1/2\ percent; Bush, about 4\1/2\ percent; right here, 3 percent.

We have been below 3 percent of GDP four times since World War II. That is the wrong message to be sending to dictators in the world. That is what the Biden-Harris budget for the Department of Defense does right now.

Now, we can fix this. We can work on the NDAA, which, as I mentioned, in a bipartisan way, we significantly increase the top-line budget.

I want to commend Roger Wicker, the Senator from Mississippi, the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, for his great leadership on that.

By the way, the White House is against that. They love going below 3 percent. And during the Biden-Harris administration, they will crank up spending for other Federal Agencies by double digits--some up 20 percent--but Homeland Security, securing the border, and our military men and women, they get a cut. Again, that is what national Democrats do.

Our tradition is what the American people want, particularly during these dangerous times: peace through strength. And one way we can do that right now on the Senate floor is to bring the NDAA to the floor-- to bring the NDAA to the floor. And yet the Senate majority leader doesn't want to do that. It is not surprising. That is the tradition of national Democrats: weakening our military, not taking it seriously, not a priority.

But that is not what the American people want, Madam President. We need the NDAA to the floor now, during these dangerous times.

And my colleagues and I--I am glad to be with all of them on the floor. By the way, I am pretty sure there are going to be some Democratic Senators calling for this, too. They are not doing it right now, but we need it on the floor today, and I am honored to be here with so many Republican Senators making the same call.

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