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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

But all this talk about dollars doesn't translate well into actual impacts on the force and risk to our Nation.

Our budget is 40 percent out of whack. You know, the amount of money we raise is 40 percent less than the amount of money we spend.

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

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