aircraft carriers in the persian gulf. the u.s.s. truman would have left today from norfolk, virginia. defense secretary leon panetta blamed the cut back on is he quest ration saying if congress can t rewrite the law, things get worse. instead of being a first-rate power in the world, we turn into a second-rate power. that would be the result of sequester. you won t find this chairman arguing we need to do more with less. you ll find me arguing if that happens, we need to do less with less. russia will surpass u.s. defense spending in terms of overall percent of gdp in just two years. china is slated to overtake the u.s. in 2035. we ve seen double digit increase s in chinese defense spending for more than 15 years now, and that really should not only give pause to the united states but it really should be a source of concern for the countries in the region as well.