I think we should be looking at the defense and seeing where we can actually be more efficient because I think that, you know, sometimes during the contracting process, we lose some efficiencies in that regard.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think cutting our defense capacity not only demonstrably diminishes our national security, but it has a tremendous negative impact in the long run on our economy because we end up having to fight wars and clean up after terrorist disasters.
If we can't find cuts in the defense budget, we're not looking carefully enough.
So I'd rather have a defense that's successful where everyone's comfortable in their positions.
In a budget this massive, there are certainly areas where I think we could do much better.
When I became director of CIA, it was just clear to me intuitively, without a whole lot of science behind it, that we had expanded rapidly and inefficiently. So I arbitrarily picked a number, 10 percent, and I said over the next 12 months, we are going to reduce our reliance on contractors by 10 percent.
The U.S. has done a great job improving productivity. We're making a lot more steel in Dearborn with fewer people. The unions have accepted much better work rules.
Understanding that yes, we are committing more resources than we thought we might be in protecting our homeland and prosecuting a war and so it's understandable that we would be going through a period of deficits.
I believe that wholeheartedly - that we have to maintain a strong national defense.
Ten years ago U.S. defence investment represented almost half of all defence expenditure in the whole alliance. Today it is 75%. This increasing economic gap may also lead to an increasing technology gap which will almost hamper the inter-operability between our forces.
We need a defense budget that's big enough to sustain an increase in the size of the Army.