china is really doing well. >> you're saying the peter g. petersonsay just be very careful. those may be published number, but they're not real numbers. and so what we need is we need to listen to the people who are our experts on national security. you put the forces in and the structures and the technologies that we say we need. this country's pivoting its forces. we're taking away the ground forces to some degree in the middle east. we'll probably keep some in afghanistan, still got troops in the gulf and we have syria to worry about. but we also recognize the risk of something going wrong in the western pacific is going up, you can hear the rhetoric heating up. you can see the buildup of forces there by our allies, also by china and you have to ask yourself, where is this going to lead? we hope it leads nowhere. we hope the admirals will have their toys the out there, but it may be much more serious. >> but i think that -- >> and the chinese phrase to me was the admirals will have their toirks toys the, by the way, but a very serious situation. >

sperling, i want to thank the peter g. petersonoundation for its continued support of these events, and i would like to introduce loretta to say a couple of words. [applause] >> thank you, ben, and good morning, everyone. the peter g. peterson foundation is proud to support this morning's discussion. we are a nonpartisan foundation whose mission is to increase awareness and accelerate action on the nation's fiscal and economic challenges. one, one part of our mission is to facilitate discussions like this with leaders like gene sperling who have been at the helm of the nation's fiscal and economic policy for decades. i worked with gene in the clinton white house, and so this is the first time in a long while that i've had the pleasure of listening to him in a morning briefing. i'm very much looking forward to this morning's discussion, and i hope you are too. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, lorettament -- loretta. let's not waste any more time and into cues the -- introduce the director of the international the fiscal council,