This from Jim Webb last week:
Echoing comments Tuesday by the Navy's top officer, Adm. Gary Roughead, Webb called for increasing the size of the Navy's fleet beyond its current target of 313 vessels and strengthening maintenance and modernization projects by encouraging more free-market competition among contractors. "Three hundred thirteen can't do it, I can't see, in the long run," Webb said. "We're building one (submarine) per year and the Chinese are building three per year. We need a strategy based on the United States being a maritime nation, and the United States should be a sea power." With a current fleet of 280 ships, and only 109 under way, the Navy's fleet, Webb said, is at a 90-year low. During his tenure as Secretary of the Navy, Webb said he oversaw a fleet of 568 ships. "Simply stated, we are decommissioning Navy ships faster than we are building them," he said. "It is imperative that we reverse this steady slide in shipbuilding."
Gene Taylor, the Democrat who chairs the House Armed Services projection forces subcommittee, has repeatedly called for an increase in the size of the fleet. When the Democrats first took back the House, Taylor explained his priorities as "Shipbuilding, shipbuilding. Getting the numbers of the fleet up....Numbers do matter." Getting the numbers of the fleet up would be a really impressive accomplishment for a Congress that's accomplished next to nothing. As Ed Morrissey notes today, the Democratic advantage on the generic Congressional ballot has narrowed significantly, down to just 5 points in favor of the Dems (the first time in six months that the lead hasn't been in the double digits). Much of the problem seems to be with independents. One suspects that a major shipbuilding program would be immensely popular among independent voters, and it would allow the Dems to appear strong on defense without alienating their base further on the issue of Iraq. It seems like a win-win.