Martin E. Dempsey Quotes

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

I’m going to keep on working to get rid of the sequester. You get up and do your jobs every day; let’s make sure Washington gets up and does its job. And what makes me frustrated is sometimes the very folks who say they stand with our military proudly are the same ones who are standing in the way of fixing the sequester. It’s important to look at deeds and not words.

As governor, I cut $5 billion in spending.

Look, I am not worried about Washington cutting too much spending too fast. I mean, the kinds of spending cuts we're talking about just right now are $100 billion out of a $3.7 trillion budget.

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

When you have a country that's been accustomed to government spending at a certain level, it is really hard to ratchet it back.

It is being alleged that the Federal Government is 'cutting' spending. In fact, we are not 'cutting' anything. Defense spending under this budget would rise by 4.3 percent over last year. Other discretionary spending would also rise.

I've made more cuts than any governor has ever made.

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

In Congress we face the possibility of radical cuts based on nothing save grand compromises over what parochial interests need to be satisfied.

We're frightened by the interest groups. We act like silly nincompoops. We can't make cuts that cause some sting. We can not even do a thing.

When they talk about belt-tightening in Washington, they are talking about tightening our belts.

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.

When I get to Washington, I'll know how to cut pork. Washington is full of big spenders. Let's make them squeal.

A lawmaker cannot be pro-sequester while also purporting to be pro-national security or supportive of a strong economy.

When I was speaker in North Carolina, the state was gripped with a deficit, and we made a fundamental policy decision to adopt austerity budgets for four years.

You know, even people who talk about cutting spending and they go 'That's not the spending that I was actually talking about that you're supposed to be cutting.' Well, we have to be looking across the board.

Deficits must be cut, yes, but the rush to austerity risks undermining the fragile global recovery.

Make no mistake: I will work with both Democrats and Republicans to cut wasteful spending and reduce our debt in a balanced, responsible way.

Today is the day for the complaining to end and for statesmanship to begin. Today I am taking action to cut state spending and balance the budget this year.

No one cuts backs like he did. No one knows what a back is anymore.

I'd be a lot more excited about eliminating earmarks if we reduced all of the spending by whatever the earmarks used to be, but nobody's, apparently, going to talk about doing that.

I came to Congress to help reduce spending.

Regardless of my legislation, spending has to be stopped.

I have a record as governor. I have a record of cutting spending. And I talked yesterday not only about we ought to cut spending, I talked about how we've cut spending in Mississippi and how if you did the same things in the federal government, you would save tens of billions of dollars a year.