Quote

But the federal government, our collective government, has responsibilities that none of these other levels of government can fulfill; and chief among these is national defense.

The job of the government isn't to go around and try and make people sacrifice, it's to try and make people free. The reason why we have a national defense is to protect our freedoms.

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties.

National defense is the sacred duty of the young and all other people.

We cannot allow anything that's called 'national defense' to justify any and all spending. We need to be very, very careful that we don't overspend and say, 'Oh, that's defense,' when perhaps it isn't.

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

The advantage of a market-based national defense is obvious: Every citizen would receive an individualized amount of military protection, based on the value each of us placed on defending the homeland.

The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.

If your basic premise about the fundamental purpose of our government is that it must provide for the common defense, then no other position is possible.

If the Pentagon truly confined itself to providing defense, then presumably we wouldn't need a whole separate government agency to provide 'Homeland Security.'