U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), during a Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) press conference, blasted Democratic leadership for failing to bring the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) up for a vote.
The NDAA, an annual defense appropriations package, has yet to be brought for a vote in the upper chamber of Congress. In a process that is traditionally bipartisan, Senate Democrats’ impeding fiscal year 2022 military spending bill marks the sixth longest delay of the NDAA in the nation’s history.
“We can walk – hopefully – we can walk and chew gum at the same time in the Senate,” said Tuberville. “We can do more than one thing, but they’re focused on one thing, for some reason, on the left. They care nothing about National Defense – it’s obvious. They care nothing about our military – it’s obvious. But we need to step up to the plate.”
Alabama’s junior senator made note of China’s military build-up, sounding the alarm over the threat the communist regime poses to the United States.
“China, in the last 10 years, has increased their military budget $200 billion dollars,” noted Tuberville. “United States of America, in the last 10 years, has decreased our military budget $400 billion dollars. We had better wake up.”
Additionally, Tuberville made mention of the adverse impact that President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates could have on national security.
“We build the hypersonic missile in Alabama – most of it,” the senator advised. “It’s under the developmental stages, as we speak, in Huntsville. We have 5,000 defense contractors, and what are they having to do? They’re having to fight a vaccine mandate.”
He continued, “They’re having to fight it every day to be able to go to work and put this missile together – defense and offensive missile – and that’s a shame, absolute shame. So, the old cliche is – we better not wake up and smell the roses, we better wake up and smell hypersonic missiles because that’s a huge problem coming our way from China and Russia.”
The freshman senator asserted that the military could see a substantial reduction in defense forces should servicemembers be forced out of its ranks over their rejection of the president’s mandate.
“There’s 400,000 service members that are non-vaccinated. 400,000. We’ve got an all-volunteer army. For one reason or another, they’ve decided not to take it,” said Tuberville. “I would like to say this about our, a lot of our officers – they have been told that [there’s a] possibility of getting a dishonorable discharge if they don’t take the vaccine. Well, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. That means they lose their pension. They lose their retirement. They probably lose the opportunity to get another job when they get out.”
He concluded, “These mandates are absolutely dividing our country, and I think that’s what the Democrats want to do.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
