John Bolton says that we can look for waste and fraud in the defense budget, but that now is not the time to be cutting back on defense spending:
Host: Can America cut its defense spending in a meaningful way?
Bolton: I don’t think so. I think you’ve got to be just as much on the outlook for waste and fraud in defense spending as anywhere else. But the fact is that we are entering into a very uncertain period in the world. We’ve got a lot of threats out there that we’re not ready for – not just nuclear proliferation, but chemical and biological weapons. We’ve got a Russia that’s using it’s oil revenues to upgrade it’s strategic nuclear and conventional capabilities. Coming back to China they’re expanding their blue water naval capabilities. They’re upgrading their ballistic missile forces.
This is not the time to cut back. I understand there’s a lot of pressure to get deficits down – I’m all in favor of it – but national security comes first, pure and simple, as far as I’m concerned.
A few weeks ago Rep. Allen West was asked about cutting defense spending. He said we should as long as it doesn’t prevent us from being successful. It seems to me that he and Bolton are really saying the same thing here, that neither want to impede our success in any way.
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