CHALLENGE #1:

Keeping Americans Safe At Home And Abroad

CHALLENGE: After President George H. W. Bush left office, in
1993, the Clinton Administration began to dismantle the
military, taking advantage of what has been called a “peace
dividend” from the end of the Cold War. We took the dividend,
but we did not get the peace.
authority and responsibility. Too often we struggle to integrate
our military and civilian instruments of national power into
coherent, timely and effective operations.” (Governor Mitt
Romney, Remarks At The George Herbert Walker Bush
Presidential Library, 4/10/07)

Meanwhile, we lost about 500,000 military personnel and CHALLENGE: During the Clinton Administration, our
about $50 billion a year in military spending. The U.S. Army intelligence community was critically weakened. The CIA
lost four active divisions and two reserve divisions. The U.S. workforce was slashed by almost 20% and recruitment was
Navy lost almost 80 ships. The U.S. Air Force saw its active reduced dramatically, undermining effective human
personnel decrease by 30 percent. The Marines’ personnel intelligence. Unfortunately, Washington’s response has focused
dropped by 22,000. on creating a new, expanded and duplicative bureaucracy in
the Directorate of National Intelligence.
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “They took the dividend, but didn’t get
the peace. It seems that we had come to believe that war and
1990s Intelligence Cuts
threats and evil men were gone forever. As Charles
Former CIA Deputy Director of Operations, James L. Pavitt:
Krauthammer observed, we took a ‘holiday from history.’ “The 90s were lean times for the human intelligence business. We
were vastly underfunded and we did not have the people to do the job.
(Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The George Herbert Walker
Bush Presidential Library, 4/10/07)
Personnel Recruitment
Clinton Administration Defense Cuts “Our “They simply
clandestine stopped
Between 1992 and 2000, the Clinton Administration cut National Defense by more ranks were recruiting people”
than half a million personnel and $50 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars. reduced by Funding
20% “The entire
ARMY AIR FORCE intelligence
Lost 4 Active Active community, not just
and 2 Personnel CIA, lost billions
Reserve Decreased of dollars”
Divisions by 30%

Source: James L. Pavitt, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, U.S. Government, Testimony, 4/14/04
George Tenet, At The Center Of The Storm, 2007, p.14

NAVY MARINES
Number Personnel
of Ships Dropped

Bureaucracy Does Not Equal Security

Decreased from by 22,000
Source: U.S. Navy photo by Paul Farley

393 to 316

Need to Slash the Size of the Bloated Directorate of National Intelligence

Source: The Heritage Foundation
(DNI) to Put Officers in the Field

Current Personnel
Estimate at DNI
CHALLENGE: In our civilian agencies, a more pervasive
problem exists: bureaucratic inaction. Today, there is no unity Initial Personnel
among our international nonmilitary resources. There is no Estimate for DNI
clear leadership and no clear line of authority. Too often, we
have to struggle to integrate our nonmilitary instruments into
coherent, timely, and effective operations.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “[We] removed barriers to unify efforts

across the services. This included establishing ‘joint
commands’ with individual commanders fully responsible for
their geographic region… Our non military resources enjoy no
such jointness, no such clear leadership, no such clear lines of

8 www.MittRomney.com

Keeping Americans Safe At Home And Abroad:
THE ROM NEY Plan
■ A Stronger Military. We must increase the size of our
military by 100,000 troops. In addition, we should
increase to at least four percent of our gross domestic
product to defense. This kind of investment will make up
for critical gaps in the modernization of our equipment,
personnel and health care efforts. However, as we invest
in our military, we must ensure that funds are used to
address critical needs of the men and women of our
Armed Forces, not political or contractor interests.
■ Transform And Strengthen Our Domestic Civilian
International Efforts To Meet A New Generation Of
Challenges. Building on the Goldwater-Nichols military
reforms of the 1980s, we need to ensure that our
civilian instruments of national power have the ability to
build joint efforts among our civilian agencies and
empower Regional Deputies with clear lines of authority,
sufficient budgets and the responsibility to develop and
execute regional plans and strategies. We must also
constantly challenge bureaucratic “group think” and
revitalize our national security structures so we have the
capabilities needed to meet 21st century challenges.
■ Strengthen Strategic Planning. Many of our civilian
national security and foreign policy structures were
created decades ago. Today we need strengthened
capabilities to strategically integrate all elements of
national power. National Security Council staff must be
empowered and accountable for reaching out to
divergent viewpoints and challenging policies
and proposals.
■ Protect The Homeland. While there has been much
emphasis on protecting facilities and responding to
attacks, a key priority must be prevention. Today,
protecting the homeland must begin far from home.
Intelligence and law enforcement efforts able to
address threats before they reach our shores must be a
priority for U.S. and international action. This will
demand new U.S. capabilities, stronger international
alliances and integration of our federal actions with
international, state and local efforts.
ROMNEY
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “[W]e need to increase our
investment in national defense. This means adding at least
100,000 troops and making a long-overdue investment in
equipment, armament, weapons systems, and strategic
defense. ... [W]e are going to need at least an additional
$30-$40 billion annually over the next several years to
modernize our military, fill gaps in troop levels, ease the
strain on our National Guard and Reserves, and support our
wounded soldiers. ... The next president should commit to
spending a minimum of four percent of GDP on national
defense.” (Governor Mitt Romney, “Rising To A New
Generation Of Global Challenges,” Foreign Affairs,
July/August 2007)
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “We need to fundamentally change
the cultures of our civilian agencies and create dynamic,
flexible, and task-based approaches that focus on results
rather than bureaucracy. ... For every region, one civilian
leader should have authority over and responsibility for all
the relevant agencies and departments, similar to the single
military commander who heads U.S. Central Command.”
(Governor Mitt Romney, “Rising To A New Generation Of
Global Challenges,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007)
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “The key to effective homeland
security, in my view, is intelligence, finding the attackers before
they attack, gathering and analyzing tips, monitoring suspects,
wiretapping, surveillance, all of the tools associated with
intelligence work. It’s aided measurably by the Patriot Act,
perhaps our most effective new tool. It is also dependent on
effective delineations of responsibilities between and among
federal agencies, across federal and state lines and state and
local lines.” (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The National
Press Club, 7/14/04)
www.MittRomney.com 9