Page 12 - Defense Sequester News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Less combat power. in constant dollars we spend nearly exactly the same amount on defense as we did 30 years ago, but we are fielding 35% fewer combat brigades, 53% fewer ships and 63% future combat aircraft squadrons, all this while overhead costs have steadily increased. in short, we have done grave harm to our military as each of our joint chiefs of staff has repeated testified to this committee. meanwhile, our national debt has increased nearly $4 trillion over the life of the budget control act. the president-elect has said he wants to, quote, fully eliminate the defense sequester and, qu...

Nearly exactly the same amount on defense as we did 30 years ago. but we are fielding 35% fewer combat brigades, 53% fewer shifts and 63% future combat aircraft squadrons. all this while overhead costs that do not add to combat power have steadily increased. in short, we have done grave harm to our military as each of our joint chiefs of staff has repeatedly testified to this committee. meanwhile, our national debt has increased nearly $4 trillion over the life of the budget control act. the president-elect says he wants to quote fully eliminate the defense sequester and rebuild our military. ...

In short, we seek peace through strength. [ cheers and applause ] >> that is why in my first budget report to congress i am going to ask for the elimination of the defense sequester. it is enough. i call it depletion. it gets worse and worse every year. not for our military. we will show world that america is going to be stronger than ever before. we're going to be stronger militarily than ever before, and hopefully we don't have to use our military, but we're going to be stronger than ever before and there's rarely been a time when we've needed this strength more than we have right now. but i...

>> reporter: staying largely on message, a more controlled trump promising to fight terror and increase military spending. >> in my first budget report to congress, i am going to ask for the illumination -- elimination of the defense sequester. >> reporter: trump announcing his secretary of defense pick, general james mattis. touting the four-star general, nato member and work during desert storm. >> i look forward to being a civilian leader as long as congress gives me the waiver and the senate votes to contend. >> reporter: all this comes on the heels of the shake-up in the trump transition ...

We pursue and build up arms not in order to seek conflict but in order to avoid conflict. we want to be strong. in short, we seek peace through strength. that is why in my first budget report to congress i am going to ask for the elimination of the defense sequester. depletion, i call it depletion. gets worse and worse every year. not for our military. we will show the world that america is going to be strong again. stronger than ever before. we're going to be stronger militarily than ever before and hopefully we don't have to use our military. but we are going to be stronger than ever before ...