Quotes About National Defense

#1. When people see the budget, they're going to say, 'Oh, my God, I wanted a tax cut, but I didn't know what you were going to do to health care and to Medicare and national defense.'

John Breaux

#2. I like Ronald Reagan, who didn't play crass politics, and he just articulated and delivered on broad themes that were needed. Free markets meant free markets. Deregulation. Lower tax rates. Strong national defense. And he was credible and believable.

Dave Brat

#3. Bottom line: A market approach to national defense would give us a lousy national defense.

Timothy Noah

#4. To talk only about national security, national defense, means to be selfish, ambitious. It is discrimination, isolation. "It is just me. What do I care about others?"

Evo Morales

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

Kim Jong Il

#6. You know, I know, all of us know that the time factor is the vital consideration - and vital is the correct meaning of the term - of our national defense program; that we must never be caught in the same situation we found ourselves in 1917.

George C. Marshall

#7. I represent what I think is a traditional Republican ... a limited government, fiscal responsibility, strong national defense, individual freedom and liberty.

Olympia Snowe

#8. If you look on the fungal genome as being soldier candidates protecting the U.S. as our host defense, not only for the ecosystem but for our population ... we should be saving our old-growth forests as a matter of national defense.

Paul Stamets

#9. There are not as many women who support the national defense budget now as men. I really think there is a gender gap in the support for the large expenditures that are necessary to modernize the force.

Ted Stevens

#10. I believe in a strong national defense. But it's my belief that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan poses a threat to national security, and we shouldn't be involved in either area.

Gary Johnson

#11. I believe that "government", as we know it today, should pull out of most things except for law enforcement and justice, national defense and foreign policy, and let the private sector, a "Grameenized private sector", a social-consciousness-driven private sector, take over their other functions.

Muhammad Yunus

#12. I would have never signed the Patriot Act. I would have never signed the National Defense Authorization Act allowing for arrests and detainment of you and me as U.S. citizens without being charged.

Gary Johnson

#13. Ronald Reagan's vision of smaller government, less taxes, and a strong national defense has led to a prosperous America. As president, he rebuilt our military and reinvigorated our confidence in ourselves.

David Vitter

#14. The jelly-bean eating thug says that national defense is important. But national defense starts at home.

Dick Gregory

#15. National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.

John Adams

#16. Protecting Americans from harm goes beyond police and national defense. It's imperative that we not destroy the commons, the physical environment on which we rely.

Kevin O'Leary

#17. We will never abdicate the security of the United States to a foreign country or refrain from taking action when appropriate. But we cannot ignore the reality that cooperative counterterrorism activities are a key to our national defense.

John O. Brennan

#18. The national defense must be provided for as well as the support of Government; but both should be accomplished as much as possible by immediate taxes, and as little as possible by loans.

John Adams

#19. Space exploration is important research to our economic and national defense, and America's space program is a symbol of our success as a scientifically and technologically advanced nation.

Randy Forbes

#20. There's no excuse for skimping on national defense when the country is at war.

Bill Nelson

#21. My belief has always been that national defense is the most important thing we do, but we shouldn't borrow to pay for it.

Rand Paul

#22. I think as people find out about my foreign policy, what they're going to find out is that I'm right in the mainstream of the Republican Party. I believe the number one priority of the federal government is national defense.

Lindsey Graham

#23. Think what evil creeps liberals would be if their plans to enfeeble the individual, exhaust the economy, impede the rule of law, and cripple national defense were guided by a coherent ideology instead of smug ignorance.

P. J. O'Rourke

#24. The idea of restraining the legislative authority, in the means of providing for the national defense, is one of those refinements which owe their origin to a zeal for liberty more ardent than enlightened.

Alexander Hamilton

#25. In addition to achieving outside the industry, agriculture, national defense science and technology modernization, we are faced with the important task of system modernization.

Zheng Bijian

#26. The American people deserve a blueprint for policymaking that is built upon the Constitution of the United States and the principles of fiscal discipline, limited government, accountability, and a strong national defense.

Jason Chaffetz

#27. There is no plausible theory under which the record of the Pentagon Papers can be interpreted as relating to the national defense.

Noam Chomsky

#28. Since 2001, the Patriot Act has provided the means to detect and disrupt terrorist threats against the U.S. Prior to enactment of the law, major legal barriers prevented intelligence, national defense, and law enforcement agencies from working together and sharing information.

Roger Wicker

#29. In order to assure an adequate national defense, it is necessary - and sufficient - to be in a position in case of war to conquer the command of the air.

Giulio Douhet

#30. We don't declare war any more; we declare national defense.

Eugene McCarthy

#31. We've always known that Democrats are anti-war, and we've always known that we can't really count on them when it comes to national defense. But we have finally seen with whom they will go to war: the American people who disagree with them.

Rush Limbaugh

#32. In 1940, then-Senator Harry Truman headed up a Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. In the course of World War II, more than $15 billion in unnecessary and fraudulent defense spending was identified.

Bernie Sanders

#33. 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.

Don Nickles

#34. Legislation passed in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 enhanced our intelligence capabilities and strengthened our national defense, but until now our nation's immigration policies have not adapted to the needs of a post-September 11th world.

Chris Chocola

#35. President Obama's reckless defense cuts that are hanging over our cloud, hanging over the horizon could put almost 44,000 jobs at stake right here in Pennsylvania. we are not going to let that happen. You know why? Because No. 1, national defense is the first priority of the federal government.

Paul Ryan

#36. I want to compliment The Heritage Foundation for its work on behalf of a strong national defense.

Don Nickles

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

Rand Paul

#38. From protecting our natural resources to providing maritime security and national defense, the Coast Guard's duties are broad in scope, and the performance of those duties has never been more important.

Russ Carnahan

#39. Well, no American wants to in any way hurt our capabilities to national defense, but that doesn't mean an unlimited amount of money, and a blank check for anything they want at any time, for any purpose. Not at all.

Chuck Hagel

#40. There is not a single person in the national defense apparatus of this country that can guarantee you are going to be 100 percent right. And that's why as president, I'll take this very seriously.

Marco Rubio

#41. During the Cold War, workers proudly contributed to national defense, but the carelessness and haste in handling toxic waste created a nightmare of pollution for subsequent generations.

Bobbie Ann Mason

#42. 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.

Grover Norquist

#43. Senator Biden was correct by calling for more to look into Governor Cuomo's defense policy. It is clear to me, by researching the governor's record on the issue, that he would be a wildcard on national defense issues.

Sam Nunn

#44. More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services - from movies to agriculture to national defense.

Marc Andreessen

#45. I believe that when we overdo our military aggressiveness, it actually weakens our national defense. I mean, we stood up to the Soviets. They had 40,000 nuclear weapons. Now we're fretting day in and day and night about third-world countries that have no army, navy or air force.

Ron Paul

#46. 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.

Timothy Noah

#47. When corporations get special handouts from the government, subsidies and tax breaks, it costs you. It means you have to pay more in taxes to make up for these hidden expenses, and government has less money for good schools and roads, Medicare and national defense and everything else you need.

Robert Reich

#48. There must be a renewal of the spirit of our forefathers, an
appreciation of the American way of life, a strengthening of muscle and sinew and the character of the nation. America needs guts as well as guns.
National character is the core of national defense.

Ezra Taft Benson

#49. Spending on programs such as national defense and funding the operating budgets of all federal agencies represent only 39 percent of our yearly budget, an all-time low.

Paul Gillmor

#50. 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.

Grover Norquist

#51. The Patriot Act removed major legal barriers that prevented the law enforcement, intelligence, and national defense communities from talking and coordinating their work to protect the American people and our national security.

Jon Porter

#52. I'm a committed Republican. I believe very strongly in individual liberty. I tend not to think much in terms of group politics. I really am a kind of small government person and I'm most certainly a fiscal conservative and strong on national defense.

Condoleezza Rice

#53. National Defense is not a threat to peace; it is the guarantee of peace with freedom.

Jeffrey Gitomer

#54. It's a failure of national vision when you regard children as weapons, and talents as materials you can mine, assay, and fabricate for profit and defense.

John Hersey

#55. I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?

Robert Redford

#56. There can be no limitation of that authority which is to provide for the defense and protection of the community in any matter essential to the formation, direction, or support of the NATIONAL FORCES.

Alexander Hamilton

#57. Defense of free markets is where we need to be when establishing a vision for national technology policy.

Marsha Blackburn

#58. Current levels of Pentagon spending may not be able to support current defense strategy. The answer to this problem is right before our eyes: cut the money and change the strategy. That would be acting in the name of a conception of national security that was truly strategic.

William Hartung

#59. If a war be undertaken ... before the resources of peace have been tried and proved vain to secure it, that war has no defense, it is a national crime.

Charles Eliot Norton

#60. This economic boycott is our means of self-defense. President Roosevelt has advocated its use in the National Recovery Administration.

Samuel Untermyer

#61. Homeland defense doesn't generate any force requirements beyond having enough National Guard to save lives in natural disasters and to baby-sit nuclear power plants on Code Red days.

Thomas P.M. Barnett

#62. The Intelligence Committee will also examine present counterintelligence programs for the Department of Energy, the National Laboratories, and the Department of Defense.

Charles Bass

#63. I talked to General Downer about some of the funding about the National Guard and some of the civil defense workers, the firefighters, the police officers, and the way that FEMA is making them spend that money. We have got a problem there.

Lynn Westmoreland

#64. Well, first let's say that the fundamental responsibility of any government is national security - in the preamble to the Constitution, provide for the common defense and insure domestic tranquility.

Angus King

#65. We urge President Bush to abstain from the National Missile Defense, just as we urge China, India and Pakistan to discontinue their nuclear arsenals.

Anna Lindh

#66. The Donald has the political players rising on their hind legs in defense of their realm. And he has hitherto shattered the totems and taboos these players enforce. Debated as never before are vexations like immigration, Islam, and, yes, the legitimacy of the Republican National Committee.

Ilana Mercer

#67. Snowden was extremely good at digital self-defense. When he was employed by the C.I.A. and N.S.A., one of his jobs was to teach U.S. national security officials and C.I.A. employees how to protect their data in high-threat digital environments.

Luke Harding

#68. China has secretly developed an army of 180,000 cyber spies and warriors, mounting an incredible ninety thousand computer attacks a year against the U.S. Defense Department networks alone. The totality of the thefts and their impact on American national security are breathtaking.

Marc Goodman

#69. I convened the first-ever national training conference for prosecutors on how to promote and deal with hate crime issues in terms of prosecutions and also protocol for defeating the gay panic defense.

Kamala Harris

#70. National Missile Defense is of a nature to retrigger a proliferation of weapons, notably nuclear missiles. Everything that goes in the direction of proliferation is a bad direction.

Jacques Chirac

#71. I support development and deployment of a limited national missile defense. Few if any of our duties surpass our obligation to provide for the common defense of our nation.

Joe Lieberman

#72. Behind the deceptive words designed to entice people into supporting violence
words like democracy, freedom, self-defense, national security
there is the reality of enormous wealth in the hands of a few, while billions of people in the world are hungry, sick, homeless.

Howard Zinn

#73. In the present imperialistic milieu there can be no wars of national self-defense.

Karl Liebknecht

#74. Regarding national security, we need to restore the defense cuts of Barack Obama to rebuild our military, to destroy ISIS before it destroys us. Regarding economic security, we need to take power and money away from Washington D.C. and empower American families so that they can rise up again.

Jeb Bush

#75. One of the reasons I continue to speak out is that the solutions to the counterterrorism problem involve other parts of the national security community - especially other elements of the Department of Defense, State, FBI, Homeland Security and the staff.

John Poindexter

#76. No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.

Salmon P. Chase

#77. Dear sirs,
The cold war isn't over. When national borders fail, the epidermis is the last line of defense. We are counting on you.
Sincerely,
Patriot

Benson Bruno

#78. When it comes to setting national priorities, determining threats, defining challenges, and fashioning and implementing foreign and defense policies, the United States and Europe have parted ways.

Robert Kagan

#79. Over the course of two years, we arrived at a point where we began to look at the value added by making information more easily accessible across the intelligence community, both defense and national.

Stephen Cambone

#80. Our foreign policy needs to support our energy, economic, defense and domestic policies. It all falls within the arch of national interest. There will be windows of opportunity, but they will open and close quickly.

Chuck Hagel

#81. Defense, national security, and law enforcement now eat up 34 percent of the Russian budget, more than double the share in 2010. That dwarfs the 18 percent spent by the U.S. last year on defense and national security, according to the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Anonymous

#82. A national government using New Deal programs and the massive defense spending beginning with World War II and continuing through the Cold War was Johnson's vehicle for expanding the Southern economy and making it, as he hoped, one of the more prosperous regions of the country.

Robert Dallek

#83. As a matter of international law, the United States is in an armed conflict with al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, and associated forces, in response to the 9/11 attacks, and we may also use force consistent with our inherent right of national self-defense.

John O. Brennan