What’s your position on the funding and expansion of the military

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HUGH HEWITT: Last week, I interviewed at length General Simmons, deputy commander of the Coalition forces there in charge of support. He stated that while the men are the most adaptable the American military have ever fielded, they’re have great affect, but that when they come home, they need more time at home, and that their equipment needs more time to be rehabbed, and I think he said more equipment as well. What’s your position vis-à-vis the funding and expansion of the military, Governor Romney?

MITT ROMNEY: Yeah, I agree with him on both fronts. In my view, we have to add at least 100,000 full time active duty personnel to our military. And in addition, we’re going to have to increase our budget, I hate to have to spend more, but it’s one area we’re going to have to spend more, which is to purchase new equipment and modern equipment for our soldiers. They need better equipment in the battlefield. And also, they need better care when they get home. We’re going to have to take care of our veterans, our promises made to veterans, our promises of honor, and we’re going to have to fill those promises. So it is going to take some additional funding on the military front, because we’ve got a war going on.

HUGH HEWITT: What is…do you have a target for GDP expenditure on defense matters?

MITT ROMNEY: For me, the target is we’re going to reach about 4%, and I think you’re going to see us hit the 4% level. I think we need to hit that level. I don’t think we have to sustain that level forever, but we’ve dropped below that. It used to be as high as 6% during the time when Ronald Reagan was president. Of course, Bill Clinton pulled back the scale of the military, pulled back the spending on our equipment. We have been underinvesting in equipment and maintenance now for a long, long time, and we’re going to have to rebuild our capacity.