I want to begin by thanking Chairman Tierney, Congressman Flake and the members of the subcommittee for this opportunity to appear before you and discuss an obviously important topic--one which will have an enormous impact on not only our nation's security but also on the future peace and prosperity of the world.

As someone who has worked both as a staff director on a Senate committee dealing with national security issues and in a senior post in the White House handling the same policy area, I am fully aware of the great value that hearings such as these can have over time in making our policymaking more deliberative and more substantive. It is one of the great strengths of our constitutional system that we are known around the world not only for having a strong presidency but also the world's most powerful legislature.

Turning now to the hearing's topic--"Rethinking our Defense Budget: Achieving National Security through Sustainable Spending"--I would like to proceed, first, by analyzing the recent report of the Sustainable Defense Task Force, Debts, Deficits, & Defense: A Way Forward. I will do so by examining some of the report's key assumptions, its more prominent recommendations, and the strategic path it would set the country on if the report's roadmap for our defense forces were followed. I will then follow that analysis with suggestions on an alternative approach that, I believe, offers a sounder course for American and global security in the future--a path that has served us well in the past and has had bipartisan support as a result. And, indeed, in what I admit is a most challenging environment given the fiscal health of this country, I will argue that instead of spending too much on America's defenses, we are spending too little. . . .

The full text of this testimony is available here as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Gary J. Schmitt is a resident scholar and the director of advanced strategic studies at AEI.