Host we are talking now with leo shane, Capitol Hill Bureau chief of the military times. Thend us first about what senate is up to now. Is their big policy measure that sets the priorities and focus of the budget next year. We have a wide range of things in here. We have military pay raise, bonuses, troop levels, a wide ange of issues for the defense on capitol hill. Host how different is the senate bill . Almost 700 billion. We saw the house version is slightly less. All of these have a base Defense Budget well over 650 billion, which is what sequestration caps on us at. One of the things that has to be resolved is how to pay for this. So far we havent seen anything. Democrats say this is a great exercise, but it is ridiculous. We are not getting anywhere with this bill because if we were to pass this, we would see budget cuts across the board. They have not really presented a path on how this will become loaw. Host the senate was in session last week on this bill what are some of the amendments . We were expecting big fights. Competitionot of about how dod has too much of a footprint in the u. S. There has been a fight for a number of years, dod asking for and the president has put out a statement saying this must be included. The issue of transgendered troops and the controversy about trumps decision to bar new recruits from joining and kick out current transgendered troops. All of these things were set aside. Leadership decided we are not going to bring anything to a floor vote. We are going to skip buy it. We are keyed up for next week. We will pass pretty much the bill that passed out of the Central Service Committee Earlier this summer. Host we will take your calls in just a moment. Emocrats call 202 7488000 republicans 202 7488001. Independents 202 7488002. We have a fourth line for active duty military, 202 7488003. Hill bureau capitol chief for the military times. He is talking to us about the issues. Lets hear from senator john mccain on the importance of funding for this bill. [video clip] this funding is critical to address the readiness shortfall and the selfinflicted wounds of the budget control act. Forward. O look recent headlines of federal actions and routine Training Operations were evidence of the deteriorated state of our military. These collisions are taking lives of Service Members at an alarming rate. In the last three years, we have killed four times as many of our slope soldiers in peacetime inining than the enemy has wartime. For Years Congress has asked our military to do too much with too little. Simply put we cannot wait any longer to recapitalize our forces and restore our capability. Host that was senator mccain. Guest this is one of the key points, the issue of readiness. We have seen serious accidents in the last few weeks that have caused military members to lose their lives away from combat. We have heard that we need more money and more planning to make sure training and readiness issues are covered to better protect our troops. The poor fight has been that democrats want to see not just alter money increase but also funding for the state department for diplomacy and other domestic agencies. It will be interesting this year to hear how strong republicans were connecting this issue between readiness and the safety and lives of troops and training to the idea of we have to lose the defense that boost the defense but we have to boost budget. Cdefense there are slight differences in the pay raise. The house is calling for 5000 more troops and 19,000 more than what President Trump asked for. Number of ships and things. This is difficult. Sat pass their passsenate and senate their versions. The difference this year is everything is late. We are almost midway through september and still have not passed this. Host what are the priorities of the administration . Guest they have set this up as the start of rebuilding the military. You heard that from President Trump during the campaign. Upy say that this sets us for longterm shipbuilding andeases and more aircraft strength bonuses. Within that is fighting efficiencies. Staffo cut headquarters and trim back on the bureaucracy. Host lets talk to kelly, independent caller from west virginia. Welcome. Caller thank you. Came out withump the ban on transgenders. That was a decision made by the military leaders, and now you se peoplehe grandstanding. That should be a military decision. That should not be up to the congress or senate or civilians protesting. Point, the to that military was looking at whether or not to allow transgender groups to become Service Members. The military had already made the decision last may that transgender military members did not pose any additional issue. The difference was when President Trump cannot unexpectedly and said suddenly were not going to allow transgender troops and kicked kick out anyand transgendered troops. This is a political issue because President Trump weighed in and did not wait for a review to finish. Host senator mcconnell cut off debate on the defense bill, and we did not get to vote to protect trans Service Members. Thatrote yesterday legislation was written to protect Service Members. Bipartisan and especially key members of the Senate Armed Services committee. On now ising confusing, and we need to send a clear message. Senator mccain has been outspoken on this and many other issues. It is a clear divide between him and the white house now. Ee has said he will b watching this closely because in his mind taking these folks out is more of a readiness issue then allowing them to serve. Host transgender troops will be allowed to reenlist for now running to a report. Lets go to mike in ohio. Caller good day. Every time i go to get my Blood Pressure medicine, i drive by the National Guard location in chillicothe. I will look to my right, and it is at the base of a great hill in ohio. I see millions and millions of dollars of surplus equipment that looks like it is from desert storm. River, andss the there are people sleeping in tents. I drive to the center of the city where the Old Railroad Depot was, and the soil is full of diesel fuel. The way i look at it, this is a ofcist, disney production military contractors, and this being they idea of us policeman needs to take a look at all these on convicted criminals we have got in the house and senate that approval of this business. Host leo shane. Guest there is a lot of concerns about calls from the military. You have heard this room rand paul for years. Donald trump came in and said we do not need to be the worlds policeman anymore. I cannot speak to the specific issues in chillicothe. I have not working chillicothe for about 15 years. Concerns thatt of there are ways to save money and reassign this money to domestic priorities. That is a popular sentiment. That is easier said than done. Equipment, surplus there are safe ways to get rid of it. If you are going to sell it, you have to find a buyer. Host from twitter, i am sure with you heating up, the military can get anything it wants. Guest yes and no. There has been a lot of sentiment even among democrats spending, butng won. Udget hawks have so far this year there has not been a lot of progress on that. They are working behind the scenes. This is one of the things donald trump promised on the campaign trail. If you look at the budget priorities, there are massive increases in defense spending and decreases elsewhere. Host hunter, republican line. Hi. Caller i was going to touch on a topic you just mentioned, which is it would not be out of the realm of possibility at the least. We will be at war with north korea soon. I say this unfortunately because of these icbm rockets they keep firing. I think china will come into this as they did in 1950. That presents a different problem for our military. As far as readiness is tocerned, now is the time push this idea. You need to do this because we are living in the nuclear age. Good morning. Host thank you. Guest north korea is on the minds of a lot of lawmakers. That is the undertone to the whole thing. Is the military ready for another major war . Resources . Ur definitely something that is on the mind of lawmakers and military folks. Ofre are we on the issue Additional Base closures. We are nowhere now. Mccains chagrin, he was hoping to have an amendment this week. Sensee seen a growing from the leaders of the house and Senate Armed Service committees that it might be time to look at this. District, that is a lot of jobs and resources moving out. It was questionable with the savings were in the last round. It takes years to see the savings. There is a lot of environmental cleanup and transfers. Initially it costs money. That is one of the big criticisms. This, we going to do cannot afford to spend money now to save money down the road. We need the money now. About 700 billion, but i want to point out the base Defense Budget is about 640 billion. I want to point out the overseas operations fund. Guest this was funding the iraq and afghanistan wars for years. Now it is this hybrid place that we used to get around spending caps. It is supposed to be for overseas operations, fights and otheris in iraq special missions. Over the last 15 years, we have seen that morph into that projects, placing equipment that was maybe lost overseas or deteriorated overseas. We have seen the last administration and this administration promise we are going to get away from this. It is not the normal budgeting process. And is an survives easy device to get around some of those problems. Host walk me through the differences between this bill and the spending bill. Guest that is the actual money with the check. The authorization bill is setting policies and priorities. When we give you the money, here is where we want you to go. For a lot of government agencies, the authorization bill is just rolled into preparations or completely ignored. The authorization bill has achieved special status on capitol hill because it is one of the few like partisan things that gets passed every year. For 50 years they have been passing this. Differentfense to a level of debate and common conversation about where we should go. Our 700folks track billion in defense spending. Caller all they need to do is read the military times. That is part of it. A lot of groups are trying to keep track of each individual aspect. Andhave aircraft, ships, tricare benefits, personnel issues. Then you have some policy issues that might not have a dollar attached to them but can have larger impact. Host lisa from illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning. The American People have got to wake up. They iraq war was sold as a lie. We know all the money spent in iraq, all the lives that were lost, and now they are talking about going to war with north korea. How much money have been wasted . You have ngos. That is money that is being wasted that is not accountable. They American People that are wake up. What is happening now is evil. Overthrowing governments, your ,lly killing people in yemen those people are starving, and no one is saying anything about it. The American People should wake up. Host thank you. I wanted to jump to a tweet from didi, who talks about overseas meddling adventures. Do we ever get reimbursed from our overseas adventures . Guest that is a broad question, but we have arrangements with the number of allies, germany, england, where we have faces and ofe reimbursement of costs having troops there. If you are referring to the iraq war and afghanistan war, some things they will pay for, but these are countries that are in rebuilding mode, and frankly did not call us up and ask for our assistance. We have heard a lot from President Trump that we should have kept the oil in iraq were be taking resources from afghanistan to pay for some of this there is a host of International Problems that iraq that. Hat erupt ofrom if you cannot show clear National Security reasons, you will have those who worry we are dumping money somewhere else. Host the Senate Passed the aums. Ler operation authorization for use of military force. This has been an issue to combat isis. All of these wars are still operating under the same military force authorization. Paul, senatorrand from kentucky talking about this. [video clip] the authorization to go to war after 9 11 expires, do you think any of the wars will end . No. The neoliberal and neoconservative believe the president has Unlimited Authority to go to war. The president has enormous authority to execute the war, but not initiate the war. The sole duty to initiate the war was given to congress. If these authorities were to expire, the president already set i have all the authority i want under the constitution to do whatever i want. Madison if he were here were to disagree. He bested that power in the legislature. It was supposed to be difficult to go to war. Some say the senate can never agree on authorization to go to war. Do you know how long it took us after pearl harbor . 24 hours. How long it took us after 9 11 . 3 days. We can come together as a body when we are attacked. After 16 years, it is difficult to determine the purpose and afghanistan. A new authorization is needed that will authorize or anywhere anytime with no geographic limits or time limit, they would be authorization everything we are doing now, not putting any limitations on it. They took a vote. Why not a straight up or down vote on aumf . Caller that is as close as we will get because leadership stepped in. Senator paul raise a lot of good points. This is something the senate and house has been stuck in for five years. President obama sent over was he thought was the basis for a new authorization of military force. Republican said this is too narrow. This is an enemy that is undefined. We need Broader Authority to go after them. Democrats said this is to open. We need to make sure there are limits. The president cannot go around the world initiating military action. In the absence, leadership has said if we cannot come close to a compromise, we dont want to weigh in on it. We dont want to send a message of confusion. Critics have argued the opposite, you are sending a message by not being all in on this war if you dont weigh in. Host lets go to bobby. Caller good morning. How are you . I have a couple of thoughts to put in here. Transgender, also a veteran who served in the military. I am curious. How is everyone complaining about four point Million Dollars about transgender care but they can spend more money on cialis and viagra. It seems like we are all worried about money. What is going on . Guest just to correct some of the numbers there, i think the said thehas Transgender Services on an annual basis would be 8 million, and the military times had the story eight years ago about the reptile dysfunction drugs, close to 75 million a year. Both will say those are valid medical issues to bring up. We have heard conservatives throw out numbers that are 15 to dodimes higher than the conversation. Decide whichod to ones are valid. Host victor, colorado, hi there. Are you there . One last chance. Victor, are you there lets try dennis in south carolina. Caller good morning. As far as im concerned i am a vietnam army that. Paul is one of the smartest senators in the senate. Repeal his amendment to the authorization of military force just proves that the that is where their money comes from. I think we should change the name of the department of defense to the department of offense. Host thank you for calling. Final thoughts . Were 36 senators who voted for authorization of military force. There would have been more if the vote was to find a little differently. This would sunset over six months. This has been an issue that has dogged congress for five years. A lot of folks are advocating their responsibility on capitol hill. Hill leo shane is Capitol Bureau chief with the military times. Benk you for your time and updated on the dod authorization bill. In a few moments, we will talk about health care. Lots going on on the hill. New competing Health Care Proposals announced on capitol hill. On, talking about the impact of addiction on the brain. We will be right back. Tonight at 10 00 eastern, David Osborne on his book, reinventing americas schools. He is interviewed by chester finn, senior fellow of the fordham institute. What i write in the book is that the places around the country that have embraced charters the most are also the fastest improving cities in the country. I am not saying make every school a charter. Im saying if you look at the , letsat works for kids like every Public School the charter. We can call it something else, pilot school, whatever, but lets give it a tiny so the people who run the school can make the decisions and create a school model that will work for the kids they have to teach. And lets hold them accountable for performance. If they do a great job, let them open another school. If they do a terrible job, lets replace them. Watch that tonight at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on booktv. Booktv, live coverage of the birkeland book festival. Chris hayes discussing his book colony and the nation. The threatsor shop to white supremacy. And talking about free speech. Book oneill on her weapons of mass destruction. Theh our live coverage of brooklyn book festival on sunday. That is on cspan2, booktv. Washington journal continues. Host our guest is known leave the. Naoam leavy
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