In 1940, then-Senator Harry Truman headed up a Senate…

OK, so $1 trillion is what it costs to run the federal government for one year. So this money's going to run through September…

— Susan Davis

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…

— Grover Norquist

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

— Noam Chomsky

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…

— Chuck Hagel

We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars maintaining 5,000 nuclear weapons. I think we need major reform in the military, making it more…

— Bernie Sanders

I think it makes people in the Pentagon kind of nervous to know that chemical agents and environmental factors could cause so much damage…

— Bernie Sanders

The most cost-effective move we could make in defense spending would be to shift the focus of CIA operations, giving this agency the directive…

— John P. Wheeler III

Education is, quite simply, peace-building by another name. It is the most effective form of defense spending there is.

— Kofi Annan

Higher education isn't just a personal investment. It's a public good that pays off in a more competitive workforce and better-informed and engaged citizens.…

— Robert Reich

Conservatives should insist that defense spending be examined with the same seriousness that we demand in examining the books of those government agencies that…

— Grover Norquist

Family-related social expenditures should not be a lower priority than defense-spending. As a country, Japan attaches great importance to it.

— Fumio Kishida

The last four secretaries of defense have pointed out that defense spending creates jobs. So do pornography, prostitution, and narcotics.

— Michael Parenti

I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off…

— Barack Obama

Historically, defense spending cuts have preceded increased international turmoil as America's global enemies sense a failure of will.

— Ben Shapiro

Defense spending as a share of the economy dropped significantly during the early 1990s, and that was one of the things, along with other…

— Peter Orszag