See what leaders are saying about military spending

Our nation's leaders are speaking out on military spending. See what they have to say below!  If you agree, click here to see how you can add your name to the WiLL budget letter.

"I'm concerned we are spending too much on foreign wars and foreign bases and not enough on infrastructure and education here." – Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), town hall meeting, March 22, 2011

“I think Republicans for too long have resisted the idea that defense needs to be part of what we’re looking at,” Blunt said on a conference call with reporters Thursday. “Let’s be sure we’re spending our defense money wisely.” – Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), March 18, 2011

“We can save money on defense and if we Republicans don't propose saving money on defense, we'll have no credibility on anything else." – Governor Haley Barbour (R-MS), March 15, 2011

“We have to re-examine: what’s the right approach? Honestly, we can’t afford what we’re doing.” – Senator Mark Begich (D-AK), referring to defense spending, Senate Budget Committee Hearing, March 10, 2011

“I’m saying the message is clear that we need to do some things now, and the Defense Department can’t be absolved from those challenges.” – Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Senate Budget Committee Hearing, March 10, 2011

“Well, it may look that way, but it’s not, in light of the debt we have and the crisis that is happening in the country.” – Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), in response to Bill Lynn’s remark that the military’s budget was “pretty reasonable,” Senate Budget Committee Hearing, March 10, 2011

“Part of what I’m concerned about is we’re looking at a double standard with respect to inefficiency.” – Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), referring to scrutiny of military vs. domestic spending, Senate Budget Committee Hearing, March 10, 2011

“We had a commission put together that a bunch of us supported. We created the deficit reduction commission, chaired by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. They gave us a pretty good roadmap of how to get to a more fiscally responsible place in the next few years, cutting some $4 trillion out of the budget deficit. What they said is that pretty much everything needs to be on the table--domestic spending, defense spending, entitlement programs, tax expenditures, tax credits, tax deductions, tax rates. They have suggested a proposal that cuts the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years, about two-thirds of that on the spending side and maybe one-third or so on the revenue side. I think it is a pretty good approach, and I commend the 18 members of the commission who endorsed that approach.” – Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), March 9, 2011, Senate Floor

“An honest look at our deficit would not just go after education and research and investment in our infrastructure. It would look across the board, as the Bowles-Simpson commission did. How can we rationalize at this moment in time cutting Head Start for hundreds of thousands of kids across America, denying money to the poorest school districts in America where they literally struggle day to day to try to turn around the lives of children who are in very dire circumstances?” – Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), March 9, 2011, Senate Floor

“Our colleagues in the House have diagnosed a patient with heart disease--and prescribed amputation. Their proposed cure would do little to heal the disease of budget deficits, and in the meantime, do a lot of damage to the patient. They propose to solve our budget woes by slashing nondefense discretionary spending--which makes up a mere 15 percent or so of the Federal budget. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office told us just this week that if we eliminated all nondefense discretionary spending--every last dime of it--we would still run budget deficits by 2016. We cannot solve the budget problem this way, no matter how hard our Republican friends try to convince Americans that we can.” – Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), March 9, 2011, Senate Floor

“We have a Pentagon that we can't audit, and we haven't been able to audit for decades. It is frustrating that we don't have business systems in place that allow transparency and that allow wise choices in terms of the expenditure of dollars.” – Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), March 9, 2011, Senate Floor

“We have to be more efficient with the dollars we spend at the Pentagon, and we will not be if we always say yes and we never say no. There will be no incentive to find savings or to find more jointness among our different military branches in terms of administrative costs if we always say yes and never say no. So the pain has to be felt at the Pentagon too. We cannot do this without pain being felt at the Pentagon.” – Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), March 9, 2011, Senate Floor

“We have increased military spending by 120 percent since 2001. We have doubled military spending. I am for a strong national defense. I believe it is a constitutional function of the Federal Government to provide for our national defense. I think it is the preeminent enumerated power, the thing we should be doing. But that being said, we cannot every 8 years double the Defense Department, double the military spending.” – Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), March 9, 2011, Senate Floor

"I just have no confidence that regardless of how long we stay, or how many dollars we pour into this, the situation is going to be any better -- whether we leave in 6 months, 6 years, or 20 years," Rendell said. "And weighing that against $100 to $150 billion a year we're spending, to the $60 to $70 billion dollars we've put into repairing the Afghani infrastructure -- compare that to our needs as a nation. The question is, is it the best expenditure of American dollars?" – Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA), December 7, 2010