At the end of the day, if you don't have end-strength reductions, you don't have any military savings.

264

Kids coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, all of them in harm's way, deserve to come back to 21st-century medical care.

264

Whatever it costs, we need to incur that cost to provide that world-class care to an extraordinary group of men and women in harm's way.

227

I remain opposed to the use of the BRAC process for what amounts to programmatic actions.

223

It's important for our nation that our military and our society be close together. That's important for democracy. And it's important for recruiting. It's important for retention. It's important for building support for our engagements overseas.

211

I fail to see at this point how you could arrive at the figures they arrived at. We're going through this effort to save money from excess capacity to modernize forces. If the savings aren't there, and it costs money to do this on top of all the economic upheaval, why are we doing this?

193

Why are we abandoning the region closest to the sea? I question the wisdom of doing that.

155

We have real questions with regard to some of the recommendations as they apply to the Air National Guard.

141

While we listened carefully to the input from the local communities, military value was our top priority.

141

If we close New London down, we'll never get it back.

133

Today it is estimated we probably have about 25 percent excess capacity in our public shipyards.

88

Kids coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan . . . deserve to come back to 21st-century medical care, ... Whatever it costs, we need to incur that cost to provide that world-class care to an extraordinary group of men and women in harm's way.

85

I still don't buy their argument about savings.

84

We want to make sure the best possible closure or realignment choices are made.

67

The emerging nuclear threat that we are facing in the world today leaves uncertain the force structure of nuclear-powered submarines of the future. If we close New London down, we would never get it back. I think it would be a tragic mistake, a tragic loss for this nation.

49