Adam Smith

Like many, if not most, of our members here, I share the view that large, immediate cuts to the defense budget would have substantially negative impacts on the ability of the U.S. military to carry out its missions.

We are not going to have more economic opportunity in this country if we have less influence in the world.

Access to overseas markets is critical to our economic growth.

If we want to be a global power, we have got to be out and about.

It is wrong to think the defense budget has somehow been held apart from our debt and deficit problems.

It is critically important that we make smart choices in this difficult budget environment.

Sequestration would make that rational evaluation impossible, which is why it must be avoided.

Like many, if not most, of our members here, I share the view that large, immediate cuts to the defense budget caused by sequestration would have dangerous impacts on the ability of the U.S. military to carry out their missions.

If we're going to fix this problem in the long run and avoid sequestration in the short run, I believe that we must address this from both ends--spending will have to come down, and we're going to have to generate new revenues.

You cannot look at a budget that is almost 40 percent out of whack in terms of our deficit and say that 20 percent of the budget has absolutely nothing to do with that.

I believe that increasing the amount of revenue that we have available is critical to this effort.

There are certain things that the defense budget requires in terms of technological and business capabilities that, if we are not doing it, those capabilities go away.

The industrial base of this country is critical to our economy and obviously defense spending is part of maintaining that industrial base.

I appreciate you holding this hearing and this series of hearings that we have had to discuss the impact of defense cuts.

The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of DOD Spending on the Commonwealth of Virginia in FY 2008

Like many, if not most, of our members here, I share the view that large, immediate cuts to the defense budget would have substantially negative impacts on the ability of the U.S. military to carry out its missions.

The U.S. military is the modern era's pillar of American strength and values.

I would strongly urge this Congress to pass appropriations bills so that we can fund our Government in a responsible and reasonable way.

If we go to sequestration, every line item in the defense budget, and frankly, every line item in all discretionary spending has to be cut by the exact same amount, which is, frankly, insane.

I agree with the chairman, that the cuts that we are facing in our Department of Defense budget do place national security issues at risk.

I hope our witnesses today can help us understand the lessons we learned 10 years ago and give us recommendations about how we might avoid repeating the same mistakes.

We need to make decisions. We need to put everything on the table and make a comprehensive decision for how to get the deficit under control long-term.

I think the importance of our national security needs is an argument for doing that.

Unless you want to cut entitlements by somewhere around a third, you have got to put revenue on the table.

It is imperative that we focus our fiscal restraint on the driver of the debt instead of the protector of our prosperity.