Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, perhaps articulating a new argument against spending cuts from President Obama’s officials, repeated Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius’s claim health care is a national security issue and added that education is a national security issue, as well.

“National security is not just dependent on military power,” Panetta said last night during an event at the Saban Center on Middle East Policy. “It’s also dependent, [among other things], on the quality of life in this country – to educate our kids, to provide health care.  All of that is part of our national security.  And it’s for that reason that I think it’s essential that the leadership of the country find the solutions to dealing with the deficit without having America have to pay a price that it will regret in the future.”