Candidates' positions are categorized as Pro (Yes), Con (No), Not Clearly Pro or Con, or None Found. Candidates who have changed their positions are listed as Now their most recent position. Candidates are listed by party and in alphabetical order by last name. Black & white photos indicate candidates who have withdrawn or who no longer meet our criteria for inclusion.
Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:
“I’ll balance the budget and part of the cuts have to be in the Department of Defense. We cannot do, as Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan suggest, increase military funding by two trillion dollars over the next decade. I support a strong defense but we need to retrench rather than trying to be the policemen of the world. We have too many soldiers, too many troopers scattered around the world. Our bases need to be reduced around the world, not increased. And the United States should stop trying to be the overseer of the world. That will save us billions and billions of dollars.” Oct. 23, 2012 Virgil Goode
Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:
“We need to provide ourselves with a strong national defense. It’s one of government’s fundamental responsibilities. But the operative word here is defense not offense and not nation-building. The biggest threat to our national security is the fact that we’re bankrupt. That we’re borrowing and we’re printing money to the tune of 43 cents to every dollar that we spend. So I am promising to submit a balanced budget to Congress in the year 2013 that would include a 43% reduction in military spending.” Oct. 23, 2012 Gary Johnson
Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during a Jan. 5, 2012 speech at the Pentagon, "Remarks by the President on the Defense Strategic Review," available at www.whitehouse.gov:
"...[W]e have to renew our economic strength here at home, which is the foundation of our strength around the world. And that includes putting our fiscal house in order. To that end, the Budget Control Act passed by Congress last year - with the support of Republicans and Democrats alike - mandates reductions in federal spending, including defense spending...
...[W]e will be strengthening our presence in the Asia Pacific, and budget reductions will not come at the expense of that critical region. We’re going to continue investing in our critical partnerships and alliances, including NATO, which has demonstrated time and again - most recently in Libya - that it’s a force multiplier. We will stay vigilant, especially in the Middle East...
Some will no doubt say that the spending reductions are too big; others will say that they’re too small. It will be easy to take issue with a particular change in a particular program. But I’d encourage all of us to remember what President Eisenhower once said - that 'each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs.' After a decade of war, and as we rebuild the source of our strength - at home and abroad - it’s time to restore that balance." Jan. 5, 2012 Barack Obama
Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following on his campaign website page "National Defense: An American Century," available at www.mittromney.com (accesssed Oct. 22, 2012):
"As Commander-in-Chief, Mitt Romney will keep faith with the men and women who defend us just as he will ensure that our military capabilities are matched to the interests we need to protect. He will put our Navy on the path to increase its shipbuilding rate from nine per year to approximately fifteen per year, which will include three submarines per year. He will also modernize and replace the aging inventories of the Air Force, Army, and Marines, and selectively strengthen our force structure. And he will fully commit to a robust, multi-layered national ballistic-missile defense system to deter and defend against nuclear attacks on our homeland and our allies.
This will not be a cost-free process. We cannot rebuild our military strength without paying for it. Mitt Romney will begin by reversing Obama-era defense cuts and return to the budget baseline established by Secretary Robert Gates in 2010, with the goal of setting core defense spending—meaning funds devoted to the fundamental military components of personnel, operations and maintenance, procurement, and research and development—at a floor of 4 percent of GDP." Oct. 22, 2012 Mitt Romney
Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following on Oct. 22, 2012 during Democracy Now's expanded presidential debate, "Expanding the Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy," available at YouTube.com:
"The numbers just don't add up. We can not continue spending a trillion dollars a year on this bloated military industrial security complex without really having to pay the price here at home...
We hear them both talking about maintaining our strong military or growing that military. This is a military that is now six times the size of the next biggest spender... this is a military budget that has doubled in size since the year 2000. But it's clear we are not twice as secure for having doubled the military budget. If anything we are less secure for draining a trillion dollars a year from our budget here at home...
...[W]e absolutely must strengthen our economy here at home this is where our true national security lies... That's why my campaign and the Green Party are calling for a Green New Deal now, an emergency program that actually puts our dollars, including hundreds of billions of our war dollars, into actually creating true security here at home." Oct. 22, 2012 Jill Stein
Failed to win the Republican nomination on Aug. 28, 2012; No additional research done as of that date to determine candidate’s position on this question.