U.S. Rep. David Price (D-NC) might find a vote he made on an amendment to HR5122 on May 11 taking on more significance as a result of the North Korea nuclear saber rattling. The amendment, which failed 301-124, would have cut the Missile Defense Agency’s funding nearly in half, from $9.6 billion to $4.6 billion.
Just today, California Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher made it clear on C-SPAN (sorry, can’t find the video) that Democrats are vulnerable on this issue, having tried to block missile defense since 1981. She vociferously denied a caller’s accusation that Democrats have never supported a robust missile defense. She made clear in a 2002 article she wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle that she is for only a “limited” missile defense, which I’m sure was calculated to give her a Clintonesque loophole down the line. No doubt Price will also have modifiers to describe his opposition to full funding of a defense shield agency. But it will be hard for Democrats, who have ridiculed “Star Wars,” “SDI” and “NMD” for more than two decades to convince the American public of their sincere support for this increasingly important type of security.
Incidentally, Price, Mel Watt and Brad Miller were the only North Carolina congressmen to vote for the amendment to cut the funding. Meanwhile, fellow Democrats Bobby Etheridge and G.K. Butterfield joined NC Republicans to vote against the amendment and thus have no ‘splainin’ to do.
