Missouri’s junior Senator delivers his farewell speech from the floor of the U.S. Senate. And, unlike many goodbye speeches which are laden with talk of memories and accomplishments, Senator Jim Talent spoke of the need for the United States to maintain a strong military. Talent did thank family, friends, colleagues, and staff members. But, he focused primarily on a the need for the U.S. to commit to spending tens of billions of dollars over current levels to ensure the military is able to modernize its forces to the degree necessary to preserve our security with the necessary margin of safety. Talent says needs a bigger military is needed because there are times when America needs to put large numbers of boots on the ground to sustain large scale peacekeeping or low intensity combat operations. Talent officially leaves the Senate on January 4th when Claire McCaskill is sworn in as Missouri’s junior Senator.