Then-Lt. Gov. John Kerry, in a letter to a constituent, April 1983: “What we as citizens can tell our government is that President Reagan should reorder his priorities. We don’t need expensive and exotic weapons systems.”
Then-Lt. Gov. John F. Kerry in a statement, February 1, 1984: “[Reagan] has mortgaged our future in order to pay for a bloated military budget of which 45% is spent on the research, development and procurement of more weapons of destruction.”
John Kerry quoted in an article in the Berkshire Eagle on May 30, 1984 entitled “Kerry asks $54 billion cut in Reagan defense budget”: “The defense expenditures of the Reagan administration are without any relevancy to the threat this nation is currently facing.”
Sen. John Kerry, in remarks to Citizens for Participation in a Political Action Convention on January 19, 1985: “[W]e are watching an administration walk away from any sense of trying to deal with what weapons systems we need to really maintain a legitimate level of defense, versus what they are willing to simply fund and fund and fund, out of their willingness to fund any weapons system. They’ve never met one they don’t like.”