Sequestration has this, frankly, mindless formula that's already built into it, that basically cuts across the board.

Shouldn't we prevent them from getting a nuclear capability, not contain them?

So you would agree with the concept that post-2014 if we had a configuration of American forces with adequate air power to assist the Afghan security forces, plus a Special Forces component, the Taliban days are over in terms of military conquest?

I think for the record we ought to point out that what we're looking at here is historically consistent with the end point of sustained ground operations.

Yet, here too, domestic politics are taking priority over national security, with the President saying he would veto an effort by Congress to eliminate sequestration that does not include raising taxes.

It seems as though many of the President's most significant decisions about our national defense have been fundamentally disconnected from conditions on the ground.

The Senate approved the Budget Control Act on a bipartisan basis with 74 Senators voting for it.

America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal.

the U.S. military and our national security are being asked to pay the price for the fiscal irresponsibility of our government over the last decade

I think, just to your comment, we have tried to step up to the plate and do our duty here.

With all respect, I consider this budget to represent unacceptable risk to our national strategy, and I hope members of this committee across party lines will work together to reduce that risk in a fiscally responsible way.

this is an area of the budget that's grown by 90 percent, and it consumes now close to half of the defense budget.

It makes no sense to me, at a time when there's an effort to create more jobs with other spending, to cut defense spending.

I don't see DOD as a job creator for America. That's one of the benefits, but I don't think we should view DOD as a way to just create jobs.

We will not tolerate an Iran that develops a nuclear weapon.

If we leave Afghanistan and the issue is in doubt about the future of the Taliban, we will regret it.

the mandatory spending for the military sustainable, you gave a simple answer, no.