Michael T. Flynn Quotes

Early in my term I will also be requesting that all NATO nations promptly pay their bills, which many are not now doing.

NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations.

I'm a big fan of NATO. But they have to pay up.

The U.S. has subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.

Americans know that a strong alliance of free, sovereign and independent nations is the best defense for our freedoms and for our interests. That is why my administration has demanded that all members of NATO finally meet their full and fair financial obligation. As a result of this insistence, billions of dollars more have begun to pour into NATO. In fact, people are shocked. But billions and billions of dollars more coming in from countries that, in my opinion, would not have been paying so quickly.

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.

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.

Pentagon dollars are essentially seen as a different kind of funding that doesn't have to stand for itself and make an argument for itself in the house of Congress.

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

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

We can always find money for what the military wants.

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

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

The bottom line is, I've got a wife and three kids. I've got bills I have to pay.

We must defend our NATO allies, but we should also ensure that everyone pays their fair share. The United States shouldn't be responsible for funding other countries' shares.

I cannot but say a word and look my disapproval when I hear that my country is spending millions for war and war engines-more, I have heard, than twice as much as the entire public school system costs the nation.

The repose of nations cannot be secure without arms, armies cannot be maintained without pay, nor can the pay be produced without taxes

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 pay the bills, I pay for everything.

America picks up 73 percent of the cost of NATO. We're paying to protect them. Wouldn't it be nice if people would pay, and we could do things properly? That's got to change.

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.

I can't pay my [bills]. I can't go to work. My car is out of gas.

She who pays the undertaker calls the tune.

We will start by modernizing our cruisers to provide the ballistic missile defense capability our nation needs. This will cost around $220 million per modernization as we seek to modernize a significant portion of these 22 ships. It will also mean jobs for our country.