embarrass the president and make him weak on missile defense. the longest range iranian couldn t reach the east coast falling a thousand miles short of washington. of course this is election year politics of course it is. beating the national security drum is something the republicans do often. usually six months before a national and a regional election. the house armed services committee today voted $100 million defense shield for the east coast,. shepard: shep you have to come up with a way to pay for these things these days. are they cutting any programs to free up money to pay for the pentagon? none yet. in fact the chairman of the joint chiefs went so far today east coast shield isn t even needed. in my military judgment the program of record for ballistic missile defense for the homeland as we submitted it adequate and sufficient to the task.