I was able to promote a strong defense budget when it could have been cut a lot more severely.

I have long believed there is a lot of waste in the defense budget.

When you cut a half-a-trillion dollars from the defense budget, it affects almost every area in the defense budget.

If we can't find cuts in the defense budget, we're not looking carefully enough.

We need a defense budget that's big enough to sustain an increase in the size of the Army.

Our strength is not just in the size of our defense budget, but in the size of our hearts, in the size of our gratitude for their sacrifice. And that's not just measured in words or gestures.