Newt Gingrich Quotes

I was able to promote a strong defense budget when it could have been cut a lot more severely.

As Secretary of Defense my job would be much easier if I didn't have to put up with [budget] cuts.

Contrary to … conventional wisdom, the consequence of past U. S. Defense cuts were not bad …. austerity can be useful in forcing Washington to think strategically, something it rarely does when times are flush.

Being a defense hawk and a budget hawk are not mutually exclusive.

If we can't find cuts in the defense budget, we're not looking carefully enough.

When the greatest part of the [U.S.] budget pays for our defense and the livelihood of retirees, it is pointless to pretend that public spending is an embarrassment consisting only of welfare and waste.

If we don’t take defense spending seriously, it undermines our credibility on other spending issues

Austerity [in the Defense Department] meant that risks had to be managed, not eliminated.

Foreign policy debates are frequently segregated from domestic policy ones, so commentators who propose increasing the defense budget or sending more foreign aid are seldom asked to explain which domestic programs they’d cut or which taxes they’d raise, in order to find the money.

If you refuse to acknowledge that there is any waste that can be culled from the military budget, you are a big-government conservative, and you cannot lay claim to balancing the budget.

I have spoken to Donald Trump about this. He understands the dramatic budget cuts our military has faced.

I have long maintained the military budget is not a jobs bill... and will continue to support the lowest budget possible.

At Concerned Veterans for America, we've made the case that the defense budget could be targeted for spending reform, but in a targeted fashion that genuinely changes unsustainable spending trajectories while preserving U.S. defense capacity.

In Congress, while the House's proposed defense budget calls for significant increases, it also cuts 11 billion dollars from veterans spending - including healthcare and disability pay. Be clear: we can't equate spending on veterans with spending on defense.

Someone has to stay on the line and say, no, we can do this by cutting spending and reducing the size of government. That's what I was committed to doing.

Let's push the Pentagon off the fiscal cliff.

The most remarkable thing about Calvin Coolidge is that he served for 67 months, and when he left office, the budget was lower than he came in. In real terms - in nominal terms with vanilla on top - he cut the budget year over year.

Sound principles will not justify our taxing the industry of our fellow citizens to accumulate treasure for wars to happen we know not when, and which might not, perhaps, happen but from the temptations offered by that treasure.

How do you balance the budget, cut taxes and increase defense spending at the same time? It's very simple. You do it with mirrors.

I want the government to pinch pennies for a change instead of American families.

We can cut the Defense Department budget because we’ve got bombs running out of our ears.

Every dollar needlessly spent on our military … diminishes our overall security.

Balanced budgets have a lot to do with National Defense.

It’s actually a lot easier to cut weapons systems than to cut personnel costs. If you try and cut military pay and benefits, you run into a buzz saw on Capitol Hill.

I’m going to keep on working to get rid of the sequester. You get up and do your jobs every day; let’s make sure Washington gets up and does its job. And what makes me frustrated is sometimes the very folks who say they stand with our military proudly are the same ones who are standing in the way of fixing the sequester. It’s important to look at deeds and not words.