Bloomberg.com: on Homeland Security

Xi Jinping: Supports party's goal of building a strong military

"Building a people's army that follows the party's command, can fight and win, and has excellent conduct is the party's goal of building a strong military."
--Xi Jinping in 2013

The official defense budget has been less than 2% of GDP since at least 2008, but as the economy keeps growing that's meant more money to pay for a modern military that's expanding its navy, air force, missile force and reportedly increasing the number of nuclear warheads it possesses.

"We will focus on building China's image as a major civilized country."
--Xi Jinping in 2013

China's rising economic power has dovetailed with a deterioration in its standing among Western nations. Pew Research Center surveys show attitudes toward China becoming more unfavorable in recent years. The reasons are numerous: human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, vagueness over the origins of Covid-19, trade wars with the U.S. and Australia, a border spat with India... and increasing hostility toward Taiwan.

Lindsey Graham: Restore defense cuts made automatically by sequestration

"I worried about this from day one. I'm sick to my stomach. And here is the first thing I would do if I were President of the United States: I wouldn't let Congress leave town until we fix this. I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to. We're not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts. We're not leaving town until we restore the intel cuts. Killing terrorists is the only option other than capturing them, because they're not deterred by death."

The military line was "not to be taken literally," according to a Graham spokesman. But [many newspapers] covered the Graham joke as a serious proposal; [one wrote]: "If taken literally, Graham is basically announcing his plan to stage a coup."

Barack Obama: Reduce defense spending 1% in 2013; add 2% per year after

The administration plans $82 billion in funding for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars for 2013, according to OMB. The basic defense-only "topline" numbers are currently projected at: $524 billion in 2013; and $533 billion in 2014; $546 billion in 2015; $556 billion in 2016; and $568 billion in 2017. The percentage increases are expressed in "nominal growth," not adjusted for inflation.

The 2012-2021 defense plan calls for $5.652 trillion in spending. OMB calculated that the total Budget Control Act- mandated defense cut over those years is $488 billion--or about an 8.5% total decrease.