Moderator
Bob Schieffer asked
Mitt Romney where he was going to get the money he wanted for a bigger Navy and
a bigger military.
ROMNEY: Our Navy is old — excuse me, our
Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313
ships to carry out their mission. We’re now at under 285. We’re headed down to
the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. That’s unacceptable to me. I want to
make sure that we have the ships that are required by our Navy…
OBAMA: Bob, I just need to comment on
this.
First of
all, the sequester is not something that I’ve proposed. It is something that
Congress has proposed. It will not happen.
The budget
that we are talking about is not reducing our military spending. It is
maintaining it.
But I think Governor Romney maybe
hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works.
You mentioned the Navy, for example,
and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have
fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed. We
have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have
these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. (Whoa! Dry humor with a straight
face, I just love it! The line was funny.)
OBAMA: And so the question is not a game of Battleship, where we’re counting
slips (ships?). It’s what are our capabilities. And so when I sit down with the
Secretary of the Navy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we determine how are we
going to be best able to meet all of our defense needs in a way that also keeps
faith with our troops, that also makes sure that our veterans have the kind of
support that they need when they come home.
The national
polls show the race is tied up 47% to 47%. Let’s hope the last debate translate
into a win for my candidate.
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missed the debate and would like to see it or to read the transcript CLICK HERE
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