michak michel, deeply appreciate being here in front of the brookings institute. i appreciate all of you who have come to participate in this. really thrilled to see the two panels that are following me on this because it's a great array of national security experts, department of defense officials, and members of our defense industrial base that i'm sure will give you even greater insight than i'll provide today. but what i'd like to do is provide the context of where we are with respect to this issue of sequestration. because our country is facing a grave threat to our national security, and the grave threat was created by congress in the debt ceiling deal that we did last summer. i am one who voted against that deal because, frankly, i didn't like the way this wasbeginning where it put our national security. also, i would have liked to have seen us do what we should do in terms of the fiscal state of the country and put together a strong, responsible fiscal plan for our country that takes into account the big picture, which obviously is not just defense spendin