Chuck Hagel Quotes

I understand all the problems for the Ministry of Defence, of course I do; working within a budget and trying to do so many things is not easy.

I will not cut our military budget by a trillion dollars, which is a combination of the budget cuts Barack Obama has, as well as the sequestration cuts. That, in my view, is making our future less certain and less secure.

I'm the first secretary of defense that's had to deal with sequestration. I've prepared two budgets that deal with sequestration. And you bring the chiefs together, the leadership of this enterprise together, to work through, how do we then take these cuts? Where do we apply those cuts? Readiness is the first thing that suffers.

The intelligence community gets hurt through sequestration.

America's military is second to none in the world. We're blessed with terrific soldiers, and extraordinary technology and intelligence. But the idea of a trillion dollars in cuts through sequestration and budget cuts to the military would change that.

The air strikes are important [to fight ISIS], but we need to have an air force capable of it. And because of the budget cuts we are facing in this country, we are going to be left with the oldest and the smallest Air Force we have ever had. We have to reverse those cuts, in addition to the cuts to our Navy and in addition to the cuts to our Army, as well.

At Concerned Veterans for America, we've made the case that the defense budget could be targeted for spending reform, but in a targeted fashion that genuinely changes unsustainable spending trajectories while preserving U.S. defense capacity.

I think there's only one or two films where I've had all the financial support I needed. All the rest, I wish I'd had the money to shoot another ten days.

Well, no American wants to in any way hurt our capabilities to national defense, but that doesn't mean an unlimited amount of money, and a blank check for anything they want at any time, for any purpose. Not at all.

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

Let's push the Pentagon off the fiscal cliff.

Its going to be a squeeze, but we have got to put our men and women in uniform ahead of everything else. We've got to be treating our reservists fairly before we move on to other procurements.

As Secretary of Defense my job would be much easier if I didn't have to put up with [budget] cuts.

The defense industry understands that the military budgets will continue to be cut until a new threat comes along.

The military budget must reflect the threats we face, rather than the budget defining those threats.

I have spoken to Donald Trump about this. He understands the dramatic budget cuts our military has faced.

I have long maintained the military budget is not a jobs bill... and will continue to support the lowest budget possible.

Our national-security strategy must drive our military budget, rather than the budget setting our strategy.

As he assumes the awesome responsibilities of the presidency, Donald Trump has inherited a world on fire and a U.S. military weakened by years of senseless budget cuts. I am encouraged that he recognizes these problems and has pledged to rebuild the military.

The bottom line, addressing defense spending cuts with a meat ax like sequestration will damage defense readiness for decades to come.

There's not gonna be any tuition cuts. There aren't gonna be any drastic reductions in salaries. And in fact when the subject of cuts comes up, the first thing that the opponents of cuts say, "You can't cut this faculty. You can't cut the salaries. You wouldn't save enough money, you can't go there."

When you raise the budget, you make creative compromises. The higher the budget goes, the more cuts in your movie happen. When people talk about how movies are watered down, that's a direct reflection of money and budget. The less money you spend; the more risks you can take. That doesn't mean it will be successful, but at least you can try different stuff. The higher your budget is, the less you can do that.

Under budgetary pressure (arbitrary or not) it is truly remarkable how many options one discovers one can do without.

Let's be realistic about that. I think Mercedes when it started the engine [development] didn't have a budget. It spent. And then lots of teams don't and can't. I mean Red Bull, for example, that won four world championships, didn't know the word "budget", and it's a case that it hadn't got the ability to have the engine that it should have had. Because somebody else [Mercedes] had the engine, wouldn't let them have it, because they didn't want competition.

You can't carpet bomb ISIS if you don't have planes and bombs to attack them with. And if we continue those cuts that we're doing , not to mention additional cuts, we are going to be left with the oldest and the smallest Air Force this country has ever had, and that leaves us less safe.