“I'm always troubled if we're trying to determine the adequacy of defense budgets based on real dollar levels in a particular year. I mean, I think you need to look at the threats that we face, and they remain quite substantial. I guess complex set of security challenges is the word. And therefore I don't think returning to some arbitrary past number for defense makes sense.”— Pentagon comptroller Robert Hale, explaining Wednesday why the Pentagon isn't able to live with the sequester-imposed budget cuts that would return it to its 2007 level of defense spending.