Faced with a new array of threats, including a thorny deficit problem, the United States needs to make immediate but significant cuts to its military budget, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III said Wednesday.
"The central challenge we face today in defense planning is how to manage a defense slow-down without endangering our national security," Lynn said during a speech at the Center for American Progress.
Spending decisions, he said, have to put everything on the table. Cuts to defense spending alone cannot solve the U.S. deficit problem but it has to be part of the solution, Lynn said.
"It would be impossible to justify excluding 20 percent of federal spending that goes toward defense as we wrestle with this deficit problem," Lynn said.
