NATIONAL DEFENSE BUDGET

One of the most important functions of government is to see to the protection of the nation. To that extent, if elected to the Senate, I will make certain our military is always fully funded to guarantee our continued strength and security.
However, one political tactic Congress uses to make it appear it’s looking out for the American people is to submit budgets that include deep cuts.
So, when debating the budget of the Defense Department Congress sometimes summarily rejects critical items on the grounds they are too expensive or unneeded. Yet, a fact of life is that combat systems are constantly being inspected for their functionality and some necessarily require improvements or retrofitting in anticipation of future engagements.
To accommodate those situations, tax dollars for research and development in Defense budgets have time and again been used to start projects for political reasons only to have them terminated for lack of funding. In such situations billions of dollars were wasted for work that had already been done. The country cannot afford such a wasteful spending habit so I would see it as my duty to rigorously review all budgets for the military to assure the country that truly innovative technology required in the different categories of our defense systems are not being approved just to be cut.
Young men and women who have committed themselves to protecting and defending the United States against any enemy make up the military. They deserve to be supplied with the best materials and equipment the country can produce and that said we simply cannot underfund them in the task they have voluntarily accepted. The War on Terror is just another fight we have to and will win but we have to do our part by keeping the budget for our military fully funded.

Sean Salazar