Reps. Smith, Hunter on defense cuts

Armed Service Committee members Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) discuss Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s calls for less military spending on Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien.

Rep. Hunter says, “We’re on the decline now. We’re going to have as few ships as we had in World War I. Not World War II, World War I. That should pose a problem and an unacceptable risk to the secretary of defense.”

Rep. Smith says, “I think the more important point is that we are still spending a lot of money on defense…. We could spend $3 trillion a year on defense and we would still have risk. It is in fact a dangerous world. You can’t spend your way out of risk. They put out a strategy. They put out a plan. They put out a budget. It still spins an enormous amount of money well over $500 billion a year.”

Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien airs week mornings from 7-9am ET on CNN.