Randy Forbes: “I hope that our hearing today can stimulate some fresh thinking about how we pay for our national defense.”

I am not really--there may be a lot of excuses for not getting there by 2020 for the Air Force, but I am not listening to excuses on the civilian side anymore.

I believe, if we are to maintain our credibility in the region, if we are to sustain confidence in the rebalance to Asia, that it is extremely important for the Trans-Pacific Partnership to be ratified.

The security issues presented with North Korea and the entire Inda-Asia-Pacific region will continue to require more attention and resources from the United States.

In the coming decades, this is the region where the largest armies in the world will camp.