"After World War I, our Armed Forces shrank from 2.9 million men to 250,000 in 1928."
"the primary role of those forces is not anymore defending the Germans or Italians; it is simply a way that we can be forward-deployed in the areas where our troops are most likely to see combat in the..."
"Let me tell you, everywhere in the budget, every little piece of it, the people who advocate for that piece of it have an outstanding argument for why their piece of it isn't the problem."
"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..."
"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 th..."
"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 wit..."
"I look forward to this discussion. I think it is the most important thing we are doing right now because it will form our national security policy in the years and decades to follow."
"If there is one iron law of American history, it is that those cuts have made future wars more likely."
"After World War II, our Armed Forces shrank from 12 million men in 1945 to 1.4 million in 1950."
"It is my belief that we are going to have to fix this problem from both ends--spending will have to come down, and we're going to have to fix the revenue problem."