Date: 2007-10-02
Speaker: LINCOLN DAVIS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Tennessee

To the gentleman from Arkansas. thanks very much for your leadership on many of the issues that our Blue Dog Coalition chajnpioned here in the House. We championed them for many years. about 1994. 1995. when the Blue Dogs were established. Basically. this group of individuals initially offered both sides. both caucuses. the opportunity to participate in the Blue Dogs. Republican and Democrats alike. I have always continued to feel very confident that in America today we need American Democrats and American Republicans more than ever. What I mean by that is that we need Americans first and political parties next. Certainly those two political parties have done a tremendous job in driving many of the debates on many of the important issues important in America. It has also given America a history as being the country in the world that championed civil rights. individual rights. and civil liberties. and we continue to do that. In many cases. as we have engaged in battlefields throughout history. it has been to bring about democracy and freedom. But as we talk about this. I want to digress just a moment and talk about a particular situation that is being considered today. which will be whats called combat training for our airmen. In many cases we put our soldiers who are in the Air Force in the battlefield. the battle zones. in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. in my opinion. without proper training for EMS. in the event there is something that happens that they are in the battlefield. they may be injured. I dont think they are properly trained. and. in many cases. we need to do that. So we are actually talking now about locating CBAT. which will be combat training for airmen in different areas. I want to read a comment that I have prepared for the potential location of this particular facility. From the Manhattan Project to TVA to the Apollo project to the Spallation Neutron Source and so much more. the Tennessee Valley Corridor and its key institutions. communities. businesses. and congressional leaders have always exemplified the phrase. "National Leadership through Regional Cooperation." Key leaders in our region continue to support our Nation by working to enhance and advance the corridors key science technology and national security assets. With that. one of the big challenges in warfare is adequate training for our combat troops. Afghanistan and Iraq have placed a new demand on the airmen of our Air Force for needed combat air support. These increased demands include prison guard duty. combat convoy support. and significant expanded security force duty. With these additional responsibilities. the Air Force has acknowledged its airmen are lacking the ground combat skills necessary to meet todays demands. To address these needs. the Air Force has proposed. as former Air Force Secretary RoGhe has described it. a new program to "bring together our battlefield airmen under a common training and organization structure to strengthen the. combat power they bring to the fight." . Weapons training. tactical field cooperation operations and land navigation training. basic combat skills. physical fitness training and basic medical training will be a part of the core curriculum provided by new Common Battlefield Airman- Training (CBAT) program. The proposed location for this new Common Battlefield Airman Training program has now been narrowed down to three potential sites. one of which is in my district. Arnold Engineering Development Center in Arnold Air Force Base near Tullahoma. Tennessee. Key leaders in the Tennessee Valley Corridor and I are convinced that establishing CBAT at Arnold Air Force Base would be the best course of action. an exceptional investment for the Air Force and the Nation. Arnold Air Force Base and the Arnold Engineering Development Center are already home to the worlds premier flight simulations testing facility and continue to be vital national resources in the development of many of the Nations top priority aerospace and national defense programs. Arnold. with its history of extensive combat training during World War II. had abundant land available for CBAT training. with a dedicated 200acre campus. small arms firing range and 9.000 acres for additional required training. In short. middle Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Corridor have a worldclass facility ready and willing to house this important new training operation. The Coffee County community. the middle Tennessee/north Alabama region and. indeed. the entire Tennessee Valley Corridor strongly support our Nations Armed Forces and their training needs as they continue to serve and defend our Nation. A better trained corps of airmen will not only give them the ability to operate more effectively in a combat zone and a better chance of survival. but will also help them better defend the United States in our post9/ 11 world. I strongly support and encourage all others to support Arnold Air Force Bases pursuit of this new CBAT program. As we continue to train our soldiers who are on the battlefields throughout the world. certainly in the two hot spots today. perhaps we should say three. which would also include the area around the Balkans. we need to adequately train them. Its not right. its not American to send someone into the battlefield without being properly trained. I know we have others Who want to speak here tonight. but I would like. if I could. before I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas. I would like to read an editorial that I sent to one of our local papers. and it deals with PAYGO. as we will address our deficits here in Congress: "At a time when the White House is attempting to position the Republican Party as fiscally responsible. former Federal Reserve Chairman AlanGreenspan bluntly said in his new book The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World that his party over the past several years put politics over fiscal discipline and lower government spending." At least one honest Republican. "During the past several years while we were witnessing the largest growth of government since the 1960s and a ballooning deficit. Mr. Greenspan was correct in advocating for a return to payasyougo rules. These rules. reenacted earlier this year after they helped restore fiscal discipline in Washington during the 1990s. require Congress to offset the cost of new spending or tax cuts with savings elsewhere. "The Blue Dog Coalition. a growing band of deficit hawk Democrats with a deep commitment to the financial stability and national security- of the United States. has been pushing to reimplement PAYGO for several years. Their bark was finally heard earlier this year when they pushed the new congressional leadership to enforce the policy. "When PAYGO was in place in the 1990s. spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) declined from 22.1 percent to 18.5 percent by 2001. As a result. huge budget deficits became a budget surplus. Shortly after President Bush took office. the Congress unwisely let PAYGO expire. causing an explosion in government spending and yearly budget deficits. Our national debt grew by $3 trillion over this period. and by 2005. spending had clawed its way back to 20.1 percent of GDP." Lits think about that a moment: $3 trillion increase since this President has been in office. What does that mean? We roughly spend $450 billion a year today on interest alone. Thats $1.2 billion a day. But lets just take the last 5 years since 2001. or 6 years since 2001. and look at how that $3 trillion is impacting our budget. For instance. today. if we had continued down the path and just had a balanced budget. not necessarily a surplus but just a balanced budget. we wouldnt be spending $150 billionplus extra in interest. Think of what that would do. We are spending today over 125. $130 billion in Iraq. supposedly. in Iraq. probably more than that. But. in essence. what we have done in the last 62 years. or last 6 years and 9 months of this administration. under control of the Republican White House and under the control of the Republican leadership on the other side of the aisle. we have increased just our portion of the interest. not retiring the debt. by over $150 billion a year. That in itself. that figure itself. alone. is over six times what the entire budget of the State of Tennessee is in one year. So I think its time that we again reclaim for this Nation fiscal responsibility and continue to be the strong defense hawks that our caucus. our Blue Dogs. has been.