John McCain

Some of the things that Senator McCain recommended in his budget in terms of letting the Navy who for years wanted to buy F/A-18E's and F's rather than the F-35's.

I would also remind you that the first thing--the first thing--that President Reagan--his first priority was rebuilding the military.

That means, in my view, first of all, repealing this mindless sequestration.

That should disturb all of us.

I do not believe that most observers would agree that America is 21 percent safer.

Congress should be leading on finding savings, not just adding dollars to our defense budget.

Chairman McCain himself has called these overruns absolutely outrageous.

Do not take it from other things that make this country strong.

I commend President Trump for talking about the cost of the F-35, and I hope that we can do something about that.

I was appalled when the Defense Business Board recommended making $125 billion in cuts over 5 years.

Thank you, Chairman McCain, Ranking Member Reed, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for this invitation to appear before you today to discuss the defense budget for fiscal year 2018 and beyond.

As Chairman McCain has noted in his just-released White Paper, the combined effects of nearly $1.5 trillion of cuts over a decade have been devastating to our military.

The epitome of this forgetfulness is the Budget Control Act of 2011, which cut and arbitrarily capped defense spending for a decade.

Too many Americans seem to have forgotten that our world order is not self-sustaining.

The world order that America has led for seven decades, which has benefited our people most of all, is now under unprecedented strain.

As President Trump assumes the awesome responsibilities of his office, he has inherited a world on fire and a U.S. military weakened by years of senseless budget cuts.

He seems to want to engage with every windmill that he can find rather than focus on the large aspect of assuming the most important position on earth.

It benefits America most of all. It is in our national interest.

Preserving such a favorable balance of power requires all elements of our national influence--diplomacy, alliances, trade, values, and most importantly, a strong U.S. military that can project power globally to deter war and, when…

Right now we are treating their attacks on a case by case basis, which is neither productive nor an enterprise that will lead to success.

What do you think it's going to take to deter Vladimir Putin's continued interference?

Wouldn't we first have to establish a policy as to how we treat cyber attacks, and therefore from which we can develop a strategy? Right now we have no policy.

I'm here to support Congressman Pompeo's nomination, despite that he has overcome a very poor education.

Senator John McCain, who passed on a copy to the FBI directly.

He will always tell us what we need to hear.