Leon Panetta

I remain hopeful that you will do the right thing with regards to sequester.

We are committed, not just to contain, but to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

a choice between fiscal discipline and a strong national defense is a false choice.

I think to just put it all on the backs of the civil servants in this country I think would not be a wise step.

sequestration would be totally irresponsible. It would devastate our national defense, it would weaken this country.

At best it might postpone it maybe 1, possibly 2 years.

It was my home in the past, and I still consider it one of the good moments of my history in public service.

I will reiterate that we have gone through a nuclear review and presented options to the President, but these options are in no way unilateral.

If they see that we are going to come down from 1,500 to some number in the low to middle hundreds, it does nothing but encourage our enemies and discourage our friends.

As we draw down over these next 5 years, we are going to be putting another 12,000 or more out, you know, bringing them back.

I have indicated my concerns about sequestration. I would just urge you to work on a bipartisan basis to develop an approach that can pass the Congress that would de-trigger sequestration.

We cannot allow the Taliban to reorganize and reconstitute as they did in 2004 and 2005, regain their oppressive influence over the Afghan people, and once again provide safe haven to Al Qaeda.

It would be devastating. You take another $500 billion out of this Defense budget, the strategy I just presented you I would have to throw out the window.

My view is that we need a Marine presence that is forward. I do not want to draw that Marine presence back to this country. I think it has to be forward in the Pacific.

I obviously share your concern that we have to do everything possible to protect our homeland.

The Department remains committed to its statutory obligations under title 10 to annually review contracted services and ensure that they are being performed in the most cost-effective manner possible.

Clearly, our goal here was to not only maintain but to strengthen our presence in the Pacific.

We have got to get our command structure to be a lot more sensitive about these issues.

The only effective way to deal with it is to put it in this kind of package.

We have got to change that.

As of early April, the Department has not received the emergency waiver to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) as requested from OMB in December 2011.

So as we hear today about various different programs and areas where we think that this budget is cutting too much, it would be most helpful--and I doubt this will happen, but I will ask for it anyway--that if, as people are making those…

Reductions in the civilian workforce are correlated to workload and mission prioritization.

The budget numbers that we have projected for the next 10 years and that Secretary Panetta and General Dempsey had to live under were passed by this Congress.

I think I might be the only one I think who has had a single positive thing to say about it.