I remain concerned that our Nation is slipping back into the false confidence of a September 10th mindset.

I did not support the debt ceiling agreement in large part because all of the cuts were lumped on to the non-entitlement portion of the budget.

if we are going to be able to transition our troops home we need to make sure that there is a reliable security force left behind

I hope the witnesses here today and at future hearings can help us think through our national security strategy and potential changes.

I think it is one of the most important challenges that we face on the Armed Services Committee and certainly in our national security Department of Defense strategy, to figure out how we deal with the budget deficit we face pending cuts.

After World War I, our Armed Forces shrank from 2.9 million men to 250,000 in 1928.

if we feel very, very strongly that those proposed cuts are going to do irreparable harm to our national security strategy, that they should not be made, then we also have an obligation to come up with the money so that we don't make them.

But, I do believe that we can rationally evaluate our national security strategy, our defense expenditures, and the current set of missions we ask the military to undertake and come up with a strategy that requires less funding.

If there is one iron law of American history, it is that those cuts have made future wars more likely.

I think it is very important that we do that, that we make it clear the impact that these cuts will have on our ability to protect this Nation.

if we face a trillion dollars in cuts, if we face the loss of 30 percent of our defense budget over the next decade, we are not going to have the capacity to back up our commitments.

After World War II, our Armed Forces shrank from 12 million men in 1945 to 1.4 million in 1950.