in my backyard, that old saying. senators, congressmen, they are all for cutting defense spending unless it's in their district or home state because this is about jobs. it's about veterans in their communities. it's about access to military health care in their cities and towns. nobody in the congress wants to be in favor of cutting that but they all say they want to cut defense spending and hagel is facing a real fight on this front. he knows it. but the point that the u.s. is making is this whole -- that the defense department is making is the whole notion of sequester, those mandatory deeper budget cuts. that's too much. they want to go for the cuts that they want. that the pentagon has tailored. they say they simply don't need the massive spending they had during the years of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. jake? >> general ryan, i'm looking at this statement from the meeting right now going on in paris between secretary kerry and his