Defense Spending Quotes

• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Children, Military

  Speech in Washington, 16 Apr. 1953, in Public Papers of Presidents 1953 (1960) p. 182

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• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Military, War

  Speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., 16 Apr. 1953

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• This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Children, War, Military

  Speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., 16 Apr. 1953

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

  Michael Parenti

  Jobs, Defense, Four

  Michael Parenti (1995). “Against Empire”, p.166, City Lights Books

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• We can't equate spending on veterans with spending on defense. Our strength is not just in the size of our defense budget, but in the size of our hearts, in the size of our gratitude for their sacrifice. And that's not just measured in words or gestures.

  Jennifer Granholm

  Thank You, Gratitude, Veterans Day

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• The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities ... We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Home, School, Cities

  Address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, delivered 16 April 1953, Statler Hotel, Washington, D.C.

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• [Hillary Clinton] is talking about sequester. She's talking about defense spending freezes. He's talking about releasing this sequester, increasing defense spending, increasing the military, increasing our footprint in the world.

  Eric Bolling

  Military, Talking, Defense

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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

  Kofi Annan

  Peace, Names, Defense

  FaceBook post by Kofi Annan from Jun 05, 2016

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• 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. Every year, we spend nearly $100 billion on corporate welfare, and more than $500 billion on defense spending. Surely ensuring the next generation can compete in the global economy is at least as important as subsidies for big business and military adventures around the globe. In fact, I think we can and must go further - not just making public higher education tuition-free, but reinventing education in America as we know it.

  Robert Reich

  Education, Military, Adventure

  "Ten Ideas to Save the Economy #5: How to Reinvent Education" by Robert Reich, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 21, 2015.

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• Cut defense spending as part of cutting all federal spending.

  Rand Paul

  Cutting, Defense, Spending

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• We lead the world in only 3 categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined, 25 of whom are allies. Now none of this is the fault of 20 year old college student, but you nonetheless are without a doubt a member of the worst period generation period ever period, so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world I don't know what the f...k you're talking about.

  Aaron Sorkin

  Country, Real, Believe

  "Fictional character: Will McAvoy". "The Newsroom". Season 1, Episode 1: "We Just Decided To", www.imdb.com. June 24, 2012.

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• Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization.

  Zbigniew Brzezinski

  Passion, Sacrifice, Self

  "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives". Book by Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1997.

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• 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 of 2016. Half of the trillion dollars goes to defense spending and the Pentagon. The other half goes to domestic spending - everything from prisons to parks. So there's also about 74 billion in there that goes to the military operations that we have ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria.

  Susan Davis

  Running, Military, Iraq

  "Here's What You Should Know About The $1.8 Trillion Spending Bill". "All Things Considered", www.npr.org. December 21, 2015.

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

  Ben Shapiro

  Cutting, America, Enemy

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• After September 11, it became unpatriotic to question any homeland-security or defense spending, and that let things get out of control.

  Jeff Flake

  September 11, Defense, Spending

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• 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 to make trouble for the Soviet Union.

  John P. Wheeler III

  War, Moving, Agency

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• I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off ramps on this one.

  Barack Obama

  Cutting, Effort, Defense

  Barack Obama's Statement on the Supercommittee, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. November 21, 2011.

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