Pete Stark Quotes

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

We want to make sure the military gets it right and understands that if they're going to have less money, they're going to have to spend it a lot more smartly.

The administration has a disturbing pattern of behavior when it comes to budgeting not only for the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan but also for military requirements not directly related to these conflicts.

Putting together a sustainable budget requires that we all work together, that we focus our scarce resources on key priorities, and that we strengthen our capacity to deliver the best product we can for the American people. And that takes money.

It is not how much you spend on defense as much as how you spend it.

Congress is not an ATM

Contrary to … conventional wisdom, the consequence of past U. S. Defense cuts were not bad …. austerity can be useful in forcing Washington to think strategically, something it rarely does when times are flush.

My belief has always been that national defense is the most important thing we do, but we shouldn't borrow to pay for it.

I find it scandalous not only that there was so little discussion of the costs of the Iraq war before we went to war - this was, after all, a war of choice - but even five years into the war, the Administration has not provided a comprehensive accounting of the war.

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

It's a tough time my friends. We need to make sacrifices to ensure our troops have the tools they need in order to get the job done. This budget will help us win the War on Terror.

Our biggest single theme is trying to make the NIH work better with the same amount of money.

The failure to work out sensible budgets makes it impossible for government agencies to make long-term plans, and instead leaves them scrambling to spend money in the short term.

Never before in the history of civilization has there been a tax cut in time of war.

War costs money. That means taxes and bonds and bonds and taxes. It means cutting luxuries and other non essentials.

It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to closely limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the Government economically administered.

The Pentagon has a long tradition of dialing up the threat to get more dollars at budget time.

How do you balance the budget, cut taxes and increase defense spending at the same time? It's very simple. You do it with mirrors.

The only way to make budget cuts is to bring down force structure.

[The] up-and-down pattern of [defense] spending over the last 18 years averages out to below zero percent real growth. In other words, if defense spending had followed a path of zero percent real growth, the U.S. probably could have obtained more defense for its dollar.

The military always asks for more [appropriations] than it gets.

Government ... simply has no bottom line.

Party conferences don't purchase fighter jets.

Balanced budgets have a lot to do with National Defense.

… war is a matter not so much of arms as of money