The big country, e. U. Agreed to by the last labor government, time for it costing taxpayers two billion pounds every single year. Will the Prime Minister please confirm the forthcoming budget negotiations, he will not agree to any further reduction in this debate . I certainly give my hon. Friend that assurance. The rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher is an incredibly important part of britains position of making sure we ge a fair deal. Can i congratulate the Prime Minister on his wise decision . Can i confirm the enthusiasm of which it was received . Can i ask him if he believes it will be possible to bring further prestigious events to Northern Ireland in the future . The right decision, for the g8 to be based in ireland on the 17th and 18th of june, and what i thought was interesting yesterday standing there talking about the situation, something that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago, to have that sort of event with so many World Leaders coming to Northern Ireland, that i think it would be a great advertisement for everything that people in nohern ireland n achieve and, i hope, the harbger of events to come. Does the Prime Minister agree that the United States loss of its aaa rating shows that the u. K. Retains the confidence of the market because of the difficult but necessary decision that is we are take decisions that we are taking . Because weve set out a clear plan, were able to have low interest rates, were able to have International Confidence you have been watching Prime Ministers questions from the british house of commons. Question time airs every wednesday when the house of commons is in session and on sunday nights on cspan. Watch any time on cspan. Org, were you can find videos of other programs. Next, leon panetta on the fight against out high debt and the impact of sequestration. At 11 00 p. M. , q a on the white house recordings of president john f. Kennedy. After that, another chance to see british Prime MinisterDavid Cameron take questions from the house of commons. If you listen to mayor bloomberg, who said the damage is unprecedented, gov. Christie said the damage was unthinkable. We have fires. Now we have Hurricane Force winds. We had snow. If you look at the shutdown of the stock exchange, you try to get a sense of the massive scale of this storm. I have read dozens of stories over the last couple weeks were many consumers are linked to any information was through their smartphone, so while there was obviously an impact, i think the networks performed really well. Some networks did well. Some networks did less well, but we do not have solid information about this. There are no standards by which we measure their performance, and it is voluntary whether they want to talk to the fcc or not or whether they want to talk to their state or local governments or not. They responded well. The first thing would be to find out how they did well. Defense secretary leon panetta says americas fight against hawkeye is moving beyond clear combat zones, requiring against al qaeda is moving beyond clear combat zone. He also discusses the impact of the socalled fiscal cliff, also budget cuts to the Defense Department. This is an hour and 15 minutes. [applause] thank you for coming. It is an honor to be back and an honor to be introducing my old boss. As you know, secretary of the net debt is one of the most respected and experienced hands in washington. His resume is legendary. Chairman of the Budget Committee back in the day when they actually passed a budget, director of the office of management and budget, and chief of staff to president clinton when the white house, director of the Central Intelligence agency, and now secretary of defense, so the question is what in the world are you going to do next. This extraordinary resume does not do justice to the man. Leon panetta is a wonderful human being and in some ways a man of contrasts. I am going to give you examples. He is known among his counterparts around the world for his warm italian bear hugs. He is also known for the laser light focus he displayed on hunting down Osama Bin Laden. He often holds meetings in his Pentagon Office with his dog curled up around his feet as he is pressing a commander on how a war plan is going to advance or how they are going to make more progress. When traveling, who he is known to hang out in the back of the plan with staff and journalists and waxing eloquent about what it is like growing up as an Italian American first generation american on a walnut farm outside monterey. Hours earlier he had been to all businesses delivering tough talking points on behalf of the president. He is known for his colorful language when talking and often for getting the press corps hangs on every fourletter word. He is also known for the passion with which he pursues the stewardship of his job, whether it is seeking to end Sexual Assault in the military or ensuring our officers are trained to hold the highest standards. He cares deeply and genuinely about men and women in uniform, and their families, their sacrifice, about wounded war years, our veterans. He has an easy laugh, but as he would say, he is serious as shit about protecting the United States of america. He is a true patriot. It is my honor present to you leon panetta. Thank you for that kind introduction. I am always reminded of my father, who was an immigrant from italy with my mother, and my earliest recollections were washing in the back of the restaurant. Then he bought a farm in Carmel Valley after the war. My father would go around when the trees got older we would go around and shake the branches, and my brother and i would be collecting walnuts. When i got elected to congress, my father said, you have been well trained to go to washington, because you have been dodging nuts your whole life, and i have been successfully dodging them my whole life. I listen to the positions, and i will tell you a story. When events occurred at the cia last week, my wife immediately gave me a call. [laughter] she said, i hope there is no way the president is going to ask you to take that job again. I said no, hes been there, done that. It is an honor to have the chance to share some thoughts with you on so many issues we confront at the Defense Department, and if i might take this opportunity, since we are close to thanksgiving to wish you and your families and have the thanksgiving. A happy thanksgiving. Michelle is a great friend, and i am sorry to see her leave the department of defense, but having been in those kinds of jobs most of my life, i anderson the reason she felt she really wanted to spend some time i understand the reason she felt she really wanted to spend time with her family. I should tell you i continue to feel her positive impact throughout the National Security community. It is not only because of her time as secretary of defense is an important position, but also because she is a cofounder of the center for new american security, and you cannot walk for long as the pentagon and not something to somebody from that organization. I would like to single out somebody else who came from there, miller, whose successor for michelle and in a position of policy undersecretary, and he, too, is somebody i depend upon every day to try to deal with everything from a tremendous number of crises we confront to the longterm strategic challenges we also have to discuss, so i am particularly pleased with his leadership, which follows in the footsteps of michelle and his acumen and wisdom and all the qualities i appreciate. I spent a lot of time in washington, and you need a lot of people, but it is the people who have a conscience and work hard at their jobs who are the most respected people you can work with. As we enter a second term for president obama, jim and so many other alumni will continue to play a Critical Role in helping guide the of ministration cost defense and foreign policy. With the election behind us, washington is turning its attention to the Unfinished Business, particularly the Unfinished Business of the current congress, including how to avoid falling off the fiscal cliff, how to prevent it from happening, and the impact not as on the fence of the discretionary budget as well, and for our purposes, hopefully they will also take the time to pass a Defense Authorization in order to be able to set some important policy guidance we need as we go into this next year. The hope is these issues can be resolved before congress adjourns, and we are all hopeful the leadership will be able to come together to find a way to resolve these issues. These are tough decisions. I know how tough they are, but they can do it. It will take some risks, but that is part of the game. You have to take risks to do the right thing, and i hope they do that. The worst thing that can happen from my perspective is they just kick the can down their road. All that would wind up doing is continuing to present a shadow as to what ultimately will happen, and that is the last thing i need. The fact is when it comes to National Security, which challenges and opportunities we face in the future go beyond the political gridlock of the moment. They are significant as we look to not just today but tomorrow. In many ways i say this to the troops, to the groups i speak to, but i believe this is an era of historic change. We are at a turning point after 10 years of war. We ended the war in iraq. Nieto conducted a Successful Campaign to bring down gaddafi in libya. We are now embarked in what i think he is a Good Campaign plan to allow us to draw down in afghanistan, and we have a continuing effort against al qaeda, and as we achieve some of those important goals, the United States is moving towards the end of the longest sustained Armed Conflict in the nations history, and i would also like to take a moment to express my pride in the men and women in uniform who have fought throughout that period, putting their lives on line to protect this country. Were it not for their sacrifices, were in not for their willingness to do that, we would not be able to accomplish what we have. Thank god they are there. [applause] one thing i found out when i came from the cia to the Defense Department, i have a lot of great joy is. I have got great weapons, a great ships, great plains, great technologies, but none of that would be worth anything without the good men and women in uniform that serve this country and did it take their lives to protecting this country. That is the real strength of the United States of america. As we transition into this new era, we will have to look at important priorities that will take on a greater urgency, particularly as we looked at the second term of this administration and look at what are the challenges we are going to be confronting. This is not like the past where we come out of the war and the rest might have diminished threats might have diminished. Then everyone winds of cutting the Defense Budget. This is a period where even as we come out of the 10 years of war, we are confronting major issues, major threats in the world. We still are involved in a war on terrorism. We are still at war in afghanistan and as we try to draw down in that war. We are in the process of trying to implement the departments Defense Strategy at the same time we are trying to meet fiscal responsibilities. We are in a period where the budget situation in this country, a huge deficit we are facing, the debt confronting this country are limited resources and will continue to limit the resources. I did not believe we worked on budgets and the Defense Department. I do not believe we have to choose between National Security and fiscal security. We are at the pentagon is implementing a strategy that we put together in order to deal with the fiscal challenge we are presented. Congress handed us 487 billion to reduce the deficit the Defense Budgets over 10 years. My approach was to say, wait a minute. We are not just going to cut across the board. We are not just going to hollow out the force as we have done in the past. Every time we have come out of the war, whether it was korea, vietnam, the cold war, we cut the budget across the board, and we hollowed out the force. We are not going to repeat that mistake, so for that reason, i said to my Service Chiefs, chairman of the joint chiefs, we have got to sit down and develop a strategy for the future that will provide the Defense Force for the 21st century, not just now but in the future, and then we will build our budget around that strategy, so one, we know we are going to be smaller. That is the reality of having at of these wars, but we have to be agile. We have to be flexible, and we have to be on the cutting edge of technology. We are going to have to have force projection in the areas with the biggest problems in the pacific and the middle east. We have to have a presence elsewhere in the world, and to the credit of our military, to design of presence that will allow us to go into countries to be there to help train, to have a presence to work with those countries to develop their capabilities, and it is something i have discussed going into latin america. It is something i have discussed going into the pacific, the asiapacific region, and the fact is we are doing that in no way countries respond in a way countries respond. Theyd like that we are there helping provide capabilities for their own security. In addition, we have to make sure we are capable of defeating more than one enemy at a time and have the capability to do that. Lastly, this cannot just be about cutting. It has got to be about investing, investing in space, investing in unman systems, investing in the kind of capability to mobilize quickly. Those are important investments for the future and most importantly, maintaining our Defense Industrial base in this country so we are not in a position where i am forced to contract out the most important defense capabilities i need. I cannot do that. I cannot just contract to another country. I have got to have that capability when the United States, so those are elements of the strategy. We built a budget that looked at every area of the Defense Budget to analyze what do we do with structure, what do we do with procurement . What do we do with regards to compensation . What do we do in trying to develop the kind of efficiencies we need to develop at the Defense Department . All of that was part of our budget. All of that we presented to congress. We have to continue to work on that. We have the problem of counter proliferation, of dealing with the Nuclear Threat in north. , dealing with the Nuclear Threat in iran. Those remain unstable and uncertain, regimes we have to deal with. We are dealing with cyber security, and this is an area that represents the battlefield of the future. We are going to have to be ready to deal with it. We are going to have to be ready to deal with the private sector and other Government Agencies to make sure we are ready to deal with that. Now the challenge of Energy Security, and that is particularly true for the Defense Department. The ability of trying to improve our efficiency in moving from one area to another, you have got to be energy of fission, not to mention Energy Security with regards to larger security issues. We have got to implement this rebalance to the pacific, something i talked about on the trip i just took to the pacific. This is my fourth trip to the pacific to make clear we are going to continue to have a strong force projection in the pacific. It is important to our Economic Security and our National Security to be able to do that in the future. In an edition, at the same time i have got a force deployed in trying to rebalance the pacific, i have got a significant presence in the middle east to deal with the threats in the middle east. I have a significant presence to deal with any potential threat we have to deal with in that region as well, and at the same time, with all of those challenges, we have to be able to take care of our Service Members and our veterans and military families. The sacrifices theyve made, they deserve that we stand by the commitments we have made to them. And particularly in light of the force structure reductions, which are going to take place, weve got to make sure that we provide them the support system so they can return to their communities and to their families and be able to re establish their lives. All of that is out there and all of that are issues that we have to think about and we have to be prepared in order to protect the National Security of this country. We have to be prepared to