Ash Carter: “We know that these programs are being abused; we just can't agree on what extent they're being abused.”

I can't support, and won't support, is anything that moves towards instability.

Chairman McCain, I appreciate your comments to our Service Chiefs about the damage the CR can do to our institution.

We need Congress to come together around providing normal, stable, responsible budgets, because the lack of stability represents one of the single biggest strategic risks to our enterprise at DOD.

"Up-or-out" isn't broken--in fact, it's an essential and highly successful system--but it's also not perfect.