22 Quotes by James Carafano

When we started out doing this, basically what we were doing was throwing money at the problem. In most cases, people had absolutely no idea how to spend the money.

Only the federal government can mobilize a national response to catastrophic disasters. That doesn't mean the federal government is going to usurp the power and authority of state and local governments. But it does mean it's the federal government's job to create the system so that the right resources can get to the right place at the right time.

I can't see the House acting in any way on the Senate, and I can't see the Senate acting in any way on the House.

I think most of them get it and they know he gets it. There's more good will than you can imagine.

We have a history of occupations that goes back to the American Revolution, and we always do it the same way: We always just figure it out when we get there.

Where do you stage? Where do you go? You have to have communications, you have to have electricity, you have to have dry ground. These are all things that have to exist, and these are all things that don't exist in New Orleans.

The president's behind him. If he left tomorrow, (deputy defense secretary) Gordon England would be secretary of defense, and defense policies and what we do in Iraq would look exactly the same.

Even more than money and the availability of money, what really slows down the reconstruction is decision-making bureaucracy and red tape,

At the end of the day, the F-22 just winds up being more expensive. It just pushed all the hard things to the out years, and it really didn't address that.