Ash Carter: “What we need is what I hope is going on now, which is a true budget agreement.”

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

The United States will not ignore attempts to interfere with our democratic processes.

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.