Dee Perez-Scott: Here's what the authorities say about the national debt and perennial budget deficits

“Given America’s difficult economic circumstances and parlous fiscal condition, military spending . . . can and should expect closer, harsher scrutiny.”
—SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES

“This country cannot continue to run trillion-dollar deficits. We’re now looking at in excess of one trillion dollars, the likelihood is we’ll go to two-trillion-dollar deficits. We cannot do that and expect that we can remain a powerful nation . . . This country will not have the resources to confront the problems that we need to confront for the future.” —DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE LEON PANETTA, 2009

“Unless our rates of expenditure are sharply reduced, we will bring on the type of collapse that will leave us defenseless before our foe. Excessive expenditures thus become the chief menace to our national security.” —PRESIDENT DWIGHT EISENHOWER