Leon Panetta Quotes

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.

In Congress, while the House's proposed defense budget calls for significant increases, it also cuts 11 billion dollars from veterans spending - including healthcare and disability pay. Be clear: we can't equate spending on veterans with spending on defense.

The good news is the Pentagon is going to make some significant budget cuts. The bad news is: They want to kill a plane that's built in your district.

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

Michigan has a lot at stake in the defense industry, and the defense industry has a lot at stake in Michigan.

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

What I say is, national defense is the most important thing we do in Washington, but there's still waste in the military budget.

Let's push the Pentagon off the fiscal cliff.

The defense budget is more than a piggy bank for people who want to get busy beating swords into pork barrels.

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

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

[Discussing specific weapons systems:] I voted for them when I was in Congress. Now that I'm secretary [of defense] I have to figure out a way to pay for them.

We can always find money for what the military wants.

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

We can cut the Defense Department budget because we’ve got bombs running out of our ears.

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

It’s actually a lot easier to cut weapons systems than to cut personnel costs. If you try and cut military pay and benefits, you run into a buzz saw on Capitol Hill.

Sometimes Republicans want to cut the social welfare programs and yet they ask for billions and billions more for the Defense Department. I don’t take that approach.

I’m a hawk, but I’m a cheap hawk. I want to cut the Defense budget by 20 percent.

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.

The Pentagon cannot acquire any equipment or technology without adequate funding. And the current budget process does not allow for the development and deployment of solutions to urgent problems on the battlefield.

Foreign policy debates are frequently segregated from domestic policy ones, so commentators who propose increasing the defense budget or sending more foreign aid are seldom asked to explain which domestic programs they’d cut or which taxes they’d raise, in order to find the money.

The way to cut the military budget is to go to the commanding officer of each military facility and tell him he will get another star if he cuts his budget, and we will be trampled in the stampede to save money.