Chuck Hagel: “I rise to add my enthusiastic support for S. 4. The most important responsibility a nation has is to its people's…”

“I rise to add my enthusiastic support for S. 4. The most important responsibility a nation has is to its people's security, ensuring a nation's freedom. As all of us in life, nations and governments are no different. We must prioritize. We must prioritize our resources. We must prioritize our agendas. We must prioritize the focus that we give to our people. As important as is Social Security, and Medicare, and tax cuts, and education and all that compose a society that helps develop a culture, national security is the highest priority, the highest priority of a government, and its most important responsibility. There will be much debate, as there should be much debate, over the next year and a half about the priorities of this Nation as we move into the next century. None will be more important than the debate that is occurring in this Chamber today, because what we are saying, the message we are sending to our people, to our friends and our foes alike around the world, is that, first, we will address the important issues confronting our national security interests; second, we will put into play and into our national security interests the resources necessary to maintain a national security system second to none. We will, in fact, prioritize our national security so that it will, as history has shown, guarantee our foreign policy, our export expansion, our trade reform.”