Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140225

Receive pushback from congress and veterans groups. You can call in this morning we have also set aside a line for active and retired military this morning host as always, you can join us on social media, our facebook page, and you can always email us. Walk usus now to through the announcement from the Defense Department, a defense reporter from the wall street journal. Your story has this headline, the defense to department targets new threats. What are the new threats and what does it mean for the changes in store for the Defense Department . Is the end of an arrow for the u. S. Military. The war in afghanistan is coming to an end. Ground forces are coming home. We will have no more than a few thousand troops in afghanistan. The military has to pay her back because of budget spending. Now we are looking at emerging threats in asia. People are looking at china, threats on the open seas, threats in cyberspace. This is where we have been turning our focus. We have been talking about a pivot in asia. At turning looking our focus towards china, which means a new focus on cyber threats. To create more cyber warriors. They are also talking about placing more emphasis on special forces, the navy seals, the people who have rescued aid workers in smalley a. They want to boost the special forces, somalia. They want to boost the special forces. What that means is that the big military is going to come down is preworld war rome in two levels. Our real shift for the pentagon. Talk to us about numbers. At its peak the army was at 570,000 in the post9 11 era. Right now it is at about 520,000. We are talking about going as 420,000 under this plan, taking us back to preworld war roman to levels. For those host for those in the military who look at troop levels, how have they weighed in . Guest general o tierra know, the head of the army, says he thinks about general odie ,rnaud, the head of the army says this is necessary to carry out a war. Obviously many people think about needing more than that. People want to fight wars on two fronts. As of yesterday, secretary hagel said that we are not going to be preparing for major ground wars anymore. That time is over. One of the things that people say these circumstances is that we are always fighting and preparing for the last war. September 10, 2001, none of us knew what was coming up for the next 13 years. Right now we are saying look, we are not going to fight ground wars or major operations around the world. Who knows what could happen to change that calculus. Right now the Obama Administration and secretary hagel say that we have to focus on what we think is down the road, focus on the things that we think are coming down the road, basically focusing on the emerging threats from asia and potentially other issues being raised, like in africa, al qaeda threats from south africa, east africa, mali, places where they want to go in and conduct limited operations. There is a kind of emerging effort in africa to build up operations there. Those are the areas where you are seeing a little bit more focus from the military. About there talking right now strategy, but i am sure that critics would bring up the what if strategy. Partguest this will be a of the debate. There will be a lot of criticism and a question about the right strategy. Congress has to weigh in on this. Veterans are going to weigh in on this. Secretary hagel says that this is a strategy that allows us to adapt,le, allows us to threats that come down the road. This is going to be the debate for the next coming years. , joiningn nissenbaum us for our first hour. If you want to asking questions, here are the numbers again if you want to ask him questions, here are the numbers again are a member of the military and want to give your thoughts on these announcements from yesterday, social Media Channels are open to you as well. Lets take our first call from bob, pennsylvania. Democrats line. Good morning. Have a question. Remember haiti . When they were delivering supplies . Guys, 60 guys passing boxes from one to another. In you imagine if you had supermarkets with two truckloads of guys unloading trucks . Putting that food into the market . How much more would it cost, you know, to feed the people in the United States if we had to do that . They use roller bars to emerald unload trucks. Why doesnt the military use that instead of using 50 or 60 people . Pretty simple. It might cut down on the cost of what it costs for rescuing. Are a lot of questions about efficiencies and the pentagon. Somen certainly generate savings. There are a lot of ways to save money and they are trying to do that, but when you are looking at the Bigger Picture, the tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars in savings are going to come in other ways. Major weapons programs. There has been a program to change pay compensation benefits. There are a lot of questions how to reduce that. If efficiency is one of those things efficiency is one of those things that people think you can make savings without a lot of pain, which can get you so far. The questions are if troops are not actively fighting wars, then what are they doing . Guest there is training. One of the things that secretary hagel is pointing out is that you cannot just cut people who are prepared to fight. At the end of the fight you need to be able to train, have the right equipment. The head of the joint chiefs of staff says that we do not want any of our guys going into this not in a fair fight. We want all of these guys and women to be able to go in and crush their opponents. That takes training. That takes equipment. Of course, when they are not fighting wars, there are rescue operations, patrols. There are a lot of things the military does before aside from fighting on the frontlines. Hear from we now retired military. Maine, good morning. Caller i have worked for a power and Light Company since my military service. All i did was run around shutting down factories. Some of them have been in the United States for 150 years and one is in vietnam now. We have no industrial structure to support the military context complex. Pat buchanan and Vladimir Putin both told us we are committing suicide. Obviously a lot of concern about the Manufacturing Base. We do have significant defense contractors, Lockheed Martin, boeing, our top defense contractors do a lot of work here. We have various companies from outside who do provide us with military hardware and technology. We do have significant military bases. That is one of the questions Going Forward, as we start the drawdown. What impact is this going to have on companies that do business . The Top Contractor is Lockheed Martin. Wonheir budget they sort of and lost. The most expensive program in pentagon history is the effort35, the new fighter jet f 35, the new fighter jet. That is one of the most expensive programs to maintain. And callers may call in wonder why we dont cut back rather than cutting benefits, but the pentagon is locked in, so Lockheed Martin wins on that. At the same time, the navy will have to cut its plans to build a new combat ship. They wanted to build 52, 55, and secretary hagel said that they are only building 32. They lost on that. Where are those jobs going to go . It is a tradeoff. There are a lot of questions about the impact that this will in the United States. Secretarys hear from of defense, chuck hagel, speaking yesterday. [video clip] increase theust pace and scale of its postwar drawdown. Today there are around five hundred 20 thousand activeduty soldiers, which the army had planned to reduce the 490,000. However the strategic choices in management review and cutie are bear theave brought to light of no longer sustaining organizational strategies. Given the reduced budgets, this is larger than we can afford to modernize and keep ready. We have decided to actively reduce active Army Strength to 400 sorties soldiers 440,000 soldiers. , how do wenissenbaum get to that number . Guest you will see troops leaving over the next five years. People retiring, being pushed out of the army. You are going to have bases that are going to lose brigades. A five year strategy. It will obviously not happen overnight. So, this is through attrition more than anything else . Guest it is not clear, but for sure. Host what is the timeframe that we will see these happen . Guest this is a fiveyear plan. We are talking about a gradual drawdown over five years. Is andrew. Andrew is from minerva, ohio, independent line. Yes, sir, iller have a question for you. Does our u. S. Military, is it the only thing backing our dollar . The military protecting Foreign Trade . If it is, what kind of affect will it have on our dollar if we shrink protection for Foreign Trade . Guest interesting question. I am not sure exactly what he is getting at, but obviously the military is there to protect our interests around the world. We have other ways of doing that, politically, diplomatically, things like that. I am not sure what he is trying to get at, but the military is only one component, not the only component, of how we protect forces abroad. Host what about the argument that 400,000 troops cannot really protect an attack on u. S. Soil . Guest what is inadequate size force . A healthyill have military. We will still have a large number of troops. Our is going to be for generals and politicians to decide. Guest if should host if we are changing the strategy, does that mean we are changing how they are trained to fight wars . Guest most likely. Right now we are seeing a shift from Ground Forces to a more heavy emphasis on maritime and naval operations. We are trying to use special operations a lot more to use conducted, targeted operations. I think that ideally the military would like to use those tines of operations as much as possible. You also see an increased use of drones, you these controversial targeting strikes around the world. Drones, these controversial targeting strikes around the world. Drones, these controversial targeting strikes around the world. Headlinelective of the that talks about the story in usa today, Technology Trumps troop levels and the budget. Guest we would love to be able to use technology on every front. The f 35 is a very advanced jet. It lets you look all around, 360 degrees. These vehicles, these allow us to stay off the battlefield and target people without putting people in harms way. Obviously a lot of debate about the strategy here around civilian casualties and what that does diplomatically, that certainly Technology Going forward will be an important part. Host california, retired military, henry, independent line. Caller you could reduce the military by one half of its strength and they would still be too much. I witnessedthat trillions of dollars of the military waste in extending their budget. Their allocations, fiscally i am talking about submarines coming in and dumping. Heir allocations the u. S. Army does the same thing. If they do not expend what they have been allocated, they have to dump it in order to qualify for the next allocation or it will be reduced. Generals iranked have witnessed, personally, the waste of expending government money on their personal use, for to build homes themselves. Now, the f35 question, they have been doing that all along. We have aircraft hidden in the desert that are being literally destroyed because of the cost overrun and the public does not know. We have spent trillions in the there,py outfits trillions in defense to support korea. Host guest guest ok, thanks for the call. There is a lot in there host ok, thanks for the call. Guest there is a lot in there. Host he mentioned generals, spending, things along that line. Guest the generals are going to take a oneyear pay freeze. Setting the messes that they are willing to sacrifice as well. Sending the message that they are willing to sacrifice as well. Owntop generals have their gulfstreams, their own folks on their planes. A lot of people say what, are these rock stars . Why are these generals having this kind of support . This will be part of the debate Going Forward. People sort of chafe at that kind of thing when they see it sometimes, generals flying around in their own planes with troops that might not have the training on the front end. At the end of the day, is that going to save you the big ticket that you need . No, but people do want to see that the people at the pentagon, the generals, are taking some of the brunt of this as well, along with the people who will be forced out of the army. Host has the dod try to make these types of reforms . The issue. Is secretary bob gates tried to make a lot of these reforms when he was in office at the pentagon. He just came out with his memoir. When we talk about reform he was to convincerefit congress and get compensation through. It is difficult in this town, as you know better than anyone, to get a mr. Congress. The pentagon has constituents in each state. State has the national guard, programs that they want to protect. Everyone has a constituency that can lock a lot of these programs from being cut Going Forward. Not myways say program. Not my national guard. It makes it hard to get this stuff through. Currently ane appetite in congress to accept these kinds of changes that secretary hagel wants to see . Guest this is the big question. Everyone in Congress Says that they would understand that Everyone Needs to tighten their belts, but what you heard from a lot of constituencies yesterday was not my program. Not my national guard. Not my bases. This is where you get to the paralysis. It is difficult to find the constituencies to make this stuff come together. Tom, brooksville, florida, hi. Caller good morning. My question is made my question is the statement that was made to general mathis last year. He was commanding Central Command and he said that if you do not fund of the state department fully, i need to buy more ammunition ultimately. I would like to hear his comment on that. Comment would be that i dont have the knowledge on good or bad to reduce the military on retiring, but it will have two effects, globally and continental wise. Globally reducing the military means you have to increase diplomacy. That is part of it. I do not disagree with reducing the military, but what are we going to do to increase diplomacy . With true diplomacy we have the possibility of saving lives and dollars. Hear that certainly from the pentagon as well. They understand that these programs are meant to drive Diplomatic Solutions and that they are a tool. Diplomacy is often the endgame here. In afghanistan, to get out of the country, they have tried to negotiate a deal with the taliban and to have a peace deal. Diplomacy is pretty essential and i do not think anyone at the pentagon would debate that you need to have a vibrant state department and a vibrant the nomadic effort to make sure that troops are used as little as possible. Host troop use was one issue taken up yesterday, benefits to military was another. Secretary hagel address those. We will get what he had to say and get your thoughts as well. [video clip] it is not fair, responding to these adjustments in the spending package. Fiscal year 2013, we have recommended a one percent raise for basic pay for military personnel, with the exception of general and flag officers, the pay will be frozen for one year. Basic pay raisins beyond this year will be restrained, though raises will continue. We are also recommending a number of changes. We will slow the growth of taxfree Housing Loans are currently cover one hundred percent of housing expenses until they cover an average number of 95 of housing expenses, with a five percent outofpocket contribution. Why comparison, the average was late 1990s. We will also no longer reimburse for renters insurance. Over three years we will reduce by 1 billion the annual nowidies provided, which total 1. 4 billion. We are not shutting down commissarys. All commissaries will still get. Ree rent and pay no taxes they will be able to continue to provide good deals to Service Members and retirees. Enlistedi am an person, what does that mean for me . At the end of the day . Nothing. This is probably the most difficult part of the program Going Forward. They are talking about trying to redress paying benefits, but a lot of the Analysis Shows that thatgoing to be done this will be nearly impossible. No one in a year like this wants to be seen cutting benefits. Secretary hagel is saying that we just need to reign things in, we will not cut pay for anyone. We are just going to reduce subsidies for Grocery Stores on these bases, but you will still be able to go there. Budgetse kinds of solutions are really anathema to people in congress. Anything that says that you reduce support for veterans or our troops can be turned into a 32nd advertisement very quickly. This is where secretary gates has the biggest problem, it is very difficult to get these kinds of solutions through. I do not see this happening this year. Congress will be putting together a Compensation Commission next year. I think we will be at least another year before we see any kind of proposals like this get any traction. Host this housing is a big deal . Guest it does help a lot, but they are talking about reducing support from 100 to 90 . Was 80 . Int it it has gone up over years and they are trying to just bring it back in line a little bit. You give veterans groups saying that you cannot balance the budget on the backs of the people who are fighting. If you want to reduce the number thehe f 35s that you buy, ships that you buy, but dont do it on the backs of those on the front line. , of then nissenbaum wall street journal, joining us to talk about the cuts that were announced yesterday by secretary hagel. We want to get your thoughts today, phone lines host for active and retired military is retiredon military from leesburg, virginia. Good morning. Caller i wanted to talk to the adults in the room. Now a gulf war veteran, Government Contractor who works for the government. I have to tell you i am confused as to why people are so upset that they are reducing the number of ships losing jobs when we have been totally willing to cut government jobs and hand over defense right and left, serving our country . I do agree with reducing the salaries for officers and increasing not reducing, but following the motion of increasing the threat list. The enlisted troops are underpaid. We really need to be supporting them. Toould like for people ponder why we are so willing to run to the defense of military jobs when we should be thinking smarter and fighting smarter, which means less troops. We are so willing to cut other government jobs to the point that the rest of the government is going to suffer and heard the employment rate. Thank you. Guest certainly that is part of the broader debate, whether it is the pentagon budget and the overall spending budget there. There will be an effort at the pentagon to reduce the civilian workforce there as well. The civilian workforce at the pentagon has grown, along with the enlisted. There is an effort to reduce that within the pentagon. Host is that contractors . Guest that is actually civilians inside the department. They are trying to cut back as well and i think the caller is talking about the broader picture. How do we look at the pentagon budget in the Bigger Picture . These are all issues that still need to be worked out in congress. Host pennsylvania, republican line. Caller i have a concern. I was reading a newspaper this morning and i noticed that the is making itnment possible for individuals to get 1000 apiece for a tax savers if they can find the form for it on the Free File Software available at the irs. For individuals to say, for retirement, if they earn under 29,000 for a private individual. Host caller, forgive me. [indiscernible] what i am after is how can they afford to give 1000 apiece to individuals for Retirement Savings when we are deducting from the military . How can the federal government afford to cut our military benefits when we are increasing the percentage of foodstamp increases and deducting it from our men and women who are putting their lives on the line . You hear this a lot. How are we going to support our troops elsewhere in the government . This is the constant debate. Our money . E spending where are our priorities . If we spend money on military troops, does it take away from other things . These are the tradeoffs that we have to decide Going Forward. The budget is facing a lot of constraints right now. There are a lot of cuts and reductions in the military. There is a broader debate going on in congress about how and where we make our priorities as a nation. Host from twitter no reward for savings. Interesting point. In all of these programs, like it is over budget but it still continues to go forward. The airplanes are not living up to expectations, but we are continuing to back it. It is a big issue in the military in terms of how much savings. That debateok at over the 800 toilet seat, the 500 wrench or whatever. There is a lot of concern about how money has been spent. We have heard that from a lot of colors this morning. Is there a way to squeeze out more efficiency . I do not think that anyone would argue that there are plenty of ways to find the efficiencies that get you where you need to go. , someonen nissenbaum on twitter may the comment this morning, close to 700 bases around the world right now. How does that factor in . A very difficult which moving forward, ones do we want to close and how do we do this . Every time that it happens, it is a big fight. Secretary hagel would like to have one of these commissions in 2017, after the next round of elections. He understands that no one wants to be the one to have a base close in their district. I think that this is something that needs to be looked at. If the army is coming down, the size of the personnel is coming down, there are already bases around the country where they are losing their fighting forces. They have become described as zombie towns because there are so few people working on them. But this issue comes straight up to congress, no one wants to close a base in their district. You do not want to be the congressperson who has a base closing in your district. As much as people would like to see that happen, it will be a couple of years before we see realistic ace closures. Next, arlington, virginia, low. Caller my issues hello. Of quick couple points, defense, it wont happen. Was a Washington Post reporter who did a story on it last year who called it a stealth aircraft with the capability to avoid budget cuts. We have more aircraft carriers around the world. One example, i was looking at satellite images of google earth. All of the standard east german like they were running solar energy farms. They were able to do that after their own defense cuts. But politically it is not going to happen. It makes sense. I would ask your reporter what he thinks happens. I think it makes sense. I have been in the military, in the air force since the cold war. The cold war is over, there are people out there still fighting it. The Defense Budget is the biggest threat to national security. An interesting, interesting question. The country and the military are obviously in a transition right now. Ground wars in afghanistan are obviously coming to an end. The massive operations that we had after 9 11 are now over. Now we have to decide what the military is supposed to be focusing on. Right now the military is saying that we need to turn our attention towards asia and china and see what happens there, watch out for potential trouble emerging in places like africa, where al qaeda militants are reestablishing themselves. Again, we wind up fighting the last war. We know what happened before. We do not really know what is coming down the road. Secretary hagel saying that we need to reduce. That we are trying to create a force that can adapt and attract. It is going to be an ongoing debate. We do not know what happens tomorrow. It could fundamentally change the discussion entirely if we had another major terrorist event in this country. An emerging threat from north iran. We do not know what is down the pike. We can only prepare for what we think is going to happen, which is what we are trying to do. As far as congress, will you see republicans and democrats fighting against the changes that the secretary of defense wants to make . Sides you often see both working together. One of the things the pentagon wants to do is eliminate the a10 warthog, this one to knows blunt nosed plane it is used with troops on the ground. Even the air force tells you that they think is the best plane for protecting troops on the ground. Secretary hagel says they have got to eliminate them entirely. You find republicans and democrats in congress joining forces saying you cannot eliminate that plane, that one is used most and best to protect forces on the ground. You often see democrats and republicans working together on these. No one wants a base echo base closure, no one wanted in their district. Base closure, no one wants it in their district. Secretary hagel, talking about military cuts overall, here is what he had to say. [video clip] [video clip] are trying to solve our military problems on the backs of our military. If it could be done, it should be done, but it cant be done. If we cut the entire military budget, everything that we vote on annually as a congress, eliminate all of that, we would still be running a deficit of half of one dollar trillion each year. Room,e elephant in the the big animal in the room, the gorilla in the room that everyone is avoiding is a mandatory spending. , we will address that keep digging ourselves further and further in the hole. That is the real problem and we are trying to, like i say, solve it. On the backs of the military. That cant be done. Guest you are going to hear that a lot. We are solving our problems on the back of the military. He is right, Discretionary Spending is a small piece of this at the end of the day, but in the broader picture there has across themade federal budget. This is a big piece of Discretionary Spending. I think it is about half of what we spend on Discretionary Spending. It is a big piece of the pie to look at. We are in a time of change for the military. This is a time when we can reevaluate put the military should be doing and how much should be spending in this nations history. Active military outside of los angeles, california, good morning. Caller thank you for having me on. I will try to make this fast, i have a lot of ground to cover and i have only one question. Across all the military spectrum, there is basically those who are at the lowest pay of the military structure. The generals make 1000 more than what the lowest do. Cutting up the middle, because in the marine corps they are already doing that. Middle. Out the this program is already going on. , giving themg out the incentives to get out. We areans, again, that starting to flood the economy with newly Unemployed People from close bases. Communities are going to take the brunt of not having that support, holding out when you have those capabilities. And about operational maintenance . We will continue spending on operations and maintenance, but let me ask you, operations do we need to be in every conflict . This way we continue being a Strong Military presence. There may be no way of working in these wars. Guest that is for secretary hagel said yesterday. We are not going to be preparing to fight every war. In libya we had a much more limited air operation. Country is much more reluctant to fight every war and get local Police Officers who were sometimes referred to. We are seeing a shift in that. In the marines, people are being given incentives to leave. The front page of the usa today to go with this, today, with , certainly, what happens to troops when they leave the service is an important thing. Veterans companies are starting up. There are efforts around the veterans buying jobs and it will certainly be a challenge as the reductions go forward. I think we need to focus more on that. It is certainly a big issue for the first lady, she has made it an issue Going Forward. Does the military help them Going Forward . Guest they try to help them, but it is the private sector does the significant amount. Retired military, prince edward, maryland, hi. Is i amquestion retired army, i served three tours in iraq and i have been there since the beginning through to the end. The problem i have had is that they career military has cut back on jobs. Sly they have contracted them out to civilian contractors. I have spoken several contractors i have worked closely with. Anytime you have a guy who goes around in your work area inerminating, he has been that country for five years and i have a problem with that. Then i think contractors will bring those jobs back home. I understand and i get that. But i kind of had inkling in my head that when these conferences iraqis already over, in a sense. But then afghanistan. When these 100,000 contractors come back to the united dates, are they going to have jobs for them . As you are saying, i have seen citizens over in iraq, grandfathers and grandmothers, working in jobs because there are no jobs to benefit their homes. They have got to subsequent their income by putting themselves in harmss way and a country like iraq. Contracting out is a big piece of the military as well. What they also call life support services. Providing food at these bases, this is done by contractors now, as opposed to being done by the military. There is good reason for that. It can provide cost savings to do that. Based in afghanistan for couple of years. I know the kinds of people he is talking about. You see people coming over because they can make good these basesking on doing contracts, getting the food from point a to point b, serving it, helping to build these bases, providing security. A lot of people over there make good money on defense contractors and then go overseas because that is where the money is. Can make a lot more working in afghanistan, where the risks are a lot higher than here. We did not hear any anything from anything yesterday secretary hagel about how he plans to deal with contractors. This is another area where you will be hearing a lot about how the money is spent and how they have taken away money from the soldiers. Host brian this imam dion nissenbaum, joining us to talk about the cuts to the pentagon and the military. Daniel, florida, hello. Caller good morning, gentlemen. Complement the journalists there on his objective reporting for what is going on. First of all, when eisenhower handed the keys over to John Fitzgerald kennedy, prior to the inauguration, when eisenhower warned what Eisenhower Kennedy about was not the industrial military complex but rather the industrial military congressional complex. But regarding the f35 it,roversy, shall we call for the kind of work that for the kind of warfare that must be engaged in currently, the a10 is clearly a superior air vehicle. The f35 is the ultimate boondoggle. That is my only comment, personnel. The host has been engaging america in this conversation. What is the decisionmaking process behind eliminating these programs as opposed to others . Guest he strikes at the heart of the issue about air superiority. , even the air10 force will tell you it is the best at protecting troops on the ground. We are trying to move forward and develop the next generation china,ter jets, like in to use for future conflicts. The radically the f 35 will be able to do the same kind of support for troops on the ground as the a10. This has to be proven out. What happens down the road still has to be determined. Yet. We not out there are not sure that they will be able to do what they say they can do. The f35 has these amazing technical advances, but they still need to be worked out. There are a lot of glitches and what is happening. How much influence will military industry have in congress over the decision the pentagon is going to make . Guest they have a significant say in what is going to happen. I think the clearest example of that in this budget is the decision that was made about surveillance plants. Planes. In the past they talked about eliminating the u2, the famous plane used during the cold war. Another plane that is made by Arthur Drummond is the global hawk. The pentagon has been trying to eliminate this for years in favor of other surveillance programs. Northrop grumman had a years Long Campaign to protect their plane. They argued. They brought down the cost. In this budget secretary hagel essentially reversed course and said that we will eliminate the u2 and keep the global hawk, they have proven that it is more cost efficient. That is an example of a company that was able to launch a campaign and be successful with secretary hagel, at least. It will have to be approved by congress. That was kind of a win for the industry. I guess that would go to the districts where these companies are located . Guest exactly. Host martin, good morning. Caller first of all, on if we guess wrong on our commitments in the future, fromkes about 12 months the decision on troop level to a true pitting the ground, joining the fight. Second, the f35, between that and the raptor, it is pretty much unproven in combat. Aircraft need another that is the next step ahead of that that is unproven in combat. Tank killer . That is what it was designed for. I could see getting rid of that. We need the think f35, it is not worth it. His first point, what does history tell us about the ability to replenish troops . It takes significant time to rebuild. There is no guessing about it. Even after september 11. We do have the ability to move quickly when we feel the urgency. It takes time. Hopefully we are not headed for an era where we need to fight , but ground wars again this is the calculated risk that secretary hagel and general dempsey are saying we have to take. Yesterday general dempsey said that we are taking more risk, no question about it. What we have not actually talked about this morning is what happens if sequestration goes forward. This is all based on some the budget for the pentagon, putting more money back in. In 2016 the cuts are supposed to get even deeper. Yesterday general dempsey said that they are at the point where they are willing to take the risk, but if they go much further and have deeper cuts, it will get much worse. And then it is a gamble that we can afford. This is also sort of the elephant or the gorilla in the room, to steal a line from the congressman. That is an unresolved issue, sequestration Going Forward. There will be more cuts down the road. Michigan, ken, independent line. Good morning, u. S. Of a. I am worried to much about relying on technology. I feel like russia and china could jam anything that we have got. Drone that wehat had was jammed in iran. That is all i have to say, goodbye. Guest certainly a fair point. We are trying to invest more in technology. Had surveillance planes that have apparently been commandeered and gone down in iran. Cyber terrorism is a big issue. The pentagon does repeat that as a concern. Guest certainly, Computer Systems have been hacked via ron. It is a big issue. The f35 plane like that is heavily based on technology and the country that is able to jam it, you could defeat the plane before it gets off the ground, essentially. I am not a technological expert, myself, but this is something the pentagon is certainly thinking about and learning about. It is a big concern. Florida,ksonville, line four retired military. Hello. Caller good morning, how are you. Thank you. Host you are on, sir. How do question is you perceive this Defense Budget going after 2015 as far as regarding the reserve component . Another big area, the guard in reserve is going to be reduced by about five percent. They are trying to reduce the number of helicopters in the gulf by eight percent. You have already have a lot of governors coming forward saying , they cannot cut this respond in emergencies. They have received awards in afghanistan and iraq. Attacking the guard in reserve is also going to be a difficult issue for congress. You have already got governors and lawmakers coming out saying that you cannot cut these forces. From mclean, virginia, joseph, good morning. Caller hi. I personally feel that a lot of the internal problems being had by this country are held by congress. We all have budgets. We all have debts. We come up with a plan to pay for these debts. They do not involve heating our home indefinitely. It does not involve starving the military. They have families. It does not involve kicking out the homeless. That is just the blunt statement because they are already homeless. It involves china and its income , its extra income to pay off your debts. It is about being responsible for the autonomy that you have and not to spend recklessly. I feel Like Congress is not looking at better ways of bringing jobs back to america. We have yet to really see a huge improvement. Spend a lot of time just the bottlenecking america and not really trying to make things improve as far as passing bills that would bring better jobs for this country. Any improvement. Whether i am democrat, republican, or independent, this country is stagnant. In congressnction is what a lot of people feel the root of the problem is. It is certainly a part of the problem and that is where a lot of the issues will be decided. That is where a lot of things do get bottlenecked, it can strain the ability of the pentagon to make strategic decisions. Jerrold, springfield, massachusetts, democratic line. Caller thank you for taking my call. My question was in reference to the Cyber Attacks that we hear about on the television. Jet almost a identical i dont know if it was a 35 for what, that china happen to have. Ares very troubling that we spending all of this money and all of this technology to just turn around and have some other country step in and produce what it is that we are doing. I was wondering if there was any specific emphasis that was going to be taken on the cyber aspect of it. I see that that is where the military is probably going to have to concentrate in the future. Thank you. Secretary panetta, the last defense secretary before he left, gave a major speech saying that he thought the cyber attack could be the next pearl harbor. A dramatic way of saying that we have to focus on cyber warriors, Cyber Attacks. A lot is going on. Certainly not at the level of the f35, but secretary hagel did say that this was one area where they wanted to put more money, attempting to prevent Cyber Attacks. He referenced the f35, the plans for it were hacked and to help jumpstart their efforts to build a similar plane. You have got to protect your intellectual property and these programs. There are a lot of ways we need to defend this country from Cyber Attacks, things like that. It is definitely an emerging threat. Host now that some of the details of this plan have been revealed, what are the next steps . President will reveal his broader budget next week. And then we start the debate. There will be hearings on what the priorities are in congress. Congress will change up significantly, put in alternatives, take things out, trying to sell a plan to the president for approval. Of theon nissenbaum, wall street journal, who wrote about the pentagons plans in todays paper. Thank you for joining us. Guest thank you. Host coming up on the program, we take a look at the new push to overhaul the nations tax code. We are joined by Grover Norquist later on in the program. Next for theator Chris Washington journal continues on cspan. I think that there are some myths out there. This is somethat regular sleep reserve product and it really is not. It is not difficult no different from a typical ch erry, that you use in making wine. I would not call it a healthy product but i would call it something that is a tasty treat. Cha at you see here is erries in various stages of the product. We will put them in water but they will still have brine in the fruit. They go through a washing to get the brine out of here. The process is taking the brine fruit and soaking it in stronger nad stronger sugar and color solution and during the course of that schedule the color picks as the sugar content ick picks up. It is early and you see how much darker the color is, it gives you the idea, you will see yellow and pink and deep red and it is just the syclcycle of the infusion and where it is in the process. Next week, book tv and American History tv look into the life of salem, oregon, sunday at 2 00 cspan. We bring Public Affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room for congressional hearings and andfings briefings conferences, with complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House. There cspan, created by cable industry 30 years ago and provided by your cable or satellite provider. Tv, follow us on facebook and twitter. Journal continues. Grover norquist of americans for tax reform. Representative camp on tax reform what is to be expected . He will take several rates down to 2, 10 and 5, another for high income people, and it will be a broader base, more progrowth, others predict economic situations economic inference and there are challenges and things we hope to do differently but this is the beginning of the conversation. This is something we needed to start yesterday. Despite the concerns that you may have with the proposal, what are they . The three things you want to do with the federal income tax is take the rates out. The income tax is 35 and the european average is 25. We are worse than the average european country, never mind the ones that are progrowth. The canadians, last time i checked is 17. 5 and may have fallen again. Less than half of what we are. It is tough to compete in a world where we tax our companies harder than everyone else. To 20 eds to come down because we, unlike other countries, have estate taxes. We have, on average a 35 federal rate and a 4. 5 on top of that. States, tax texas does not have one, california has a worse one. If you take this to 20 the average this is an important step forward. The challenge is that to pay for the lower rate, they link in the depreciation schedule. If you buy a piece of equipment for 100,000, the workers will be more productive and make more money. Thatyou should do is spend hundred thousand dollars. You have spent it. What we tell somebody is we will allow you to depreciate over 10 years, 10,000 per year, or five years, 500,000 per year. About 1000 pages of the code process, they can match and the itice is depreciated and raises the cost of capital and makes it more expensive to buy that on a machine. If you can get that today and not pay taxes on the 100,000 because you have spent it, you actually get more growth. If there are three parts of tax reform, lower rates going to full expensing so they are job creating so you have job creation and savings, there is territoriality. We and north korea have this, if the unitedney in states government, it takes money. France, you have the american tax on top of french taxes. If you are french, the United States will pick your pocket but the french will not. Their view is whoever owns the land, gets to pick your pocket. We dont do it a second time. Americans could be doing it overseas, businesses overseas, are spending money sending money back to support families and we punish them compared to other countries. We need to get to a territorial tax system. Of thee do it the rest world does and usually this is a bad idea, but in this case, we are the guys this is something we do wrong. Host did the representative talk to about this at all . Guest i spoke to him a couple of days ago and we had an outline, no secrets, and there so dependingort on how much depth you want to go in with, when it is released you will see broad outlines. The newspapers are starting to cover the top issue. Host did you talk about the over they make income they make taxes off of income over 500,000. Guest we did not talk about that. They are talking about the static base and the governments on model creates a lot of Economic Growth, but this is part of a drag. 4y do not count that with trillion or more of gdp. The local government and the state government, they dont count that when they decide something is revenueneutral. We take the numbers that damage the ability to have more dramatic and job creating tax reform. In making sure that every income group makes the same tax cut and so as people moved to tax brackets, the guys on the left you are middleclass all your life for poor are your life or rich all your life, most people at age 15 are very poor, and 45 areople at 25, 35, richer, and make more money. One person goes from one tax bracket to another in their life and sometimes we think that these are different people rather than the same guy. Host when you talk to the representative about the plan, what was his response . Guest he said, we will put this on the floor, the outline of a plan to begin a conversation. The concern that i have and that i expressed, i always express, which is nothing new, is that we should both go with a 25 individual operate, and we need expensing onll appreciation, full expensing and when you use dynamic on them, and lower the cost of capital you get growth. Longg the president s schedule and having them to year one. This is one thing obama did right in his presidency. Small businesses are taken for 75,000 of their investment, you do that and you will have more investment in that area. If you do that permanently, it would be h amend this asset to the economy. I think that is the direction that we ought to go. I know that there are counter pressures the other way but now we have this conversation. Host Grover Norquist, talking about tax reform in the congress, if you have questions and you can tweet us at www. Cspan. Org. Tim is first, for the republicans. Caller i am not so that all of this technical stuff. A way to get the democrats and republicans to Work Together. I just watched a rebroadcast of dines dsouza and bill ayers. Dinesh dwatch them souza and bill ayers. When you watch them, you can see that they are both right. It is hard for people to hold things like that but they are both right. They come from different places but they are both right. I am 65. E, i have watched immigrants and republicans compromise all my life. But suddenly, they cant. I am not sure why that is. Can you speak to that . Guest that is a good question and there are several reasons for that. You are 65. People who are older remember in the 1940s and the 1950s and 70s, there were liberal republicans and conservative republicans, liberal democrats and conservative democrats. Every time that there was a fight, on tax policy or spending, there were democrats who were hawkish on defense, republicans who were dovish, democrats who would fight like john f. Kennedy and those who wouldnt, and republicans like barry goldwater. All fights were bipartisan. Republicans and democrats would get together and fight conservatives, democrat and republican on every issue so you saw bipartisan agreements everywhere. Of ronald lifetime reagan, his political lifetime, the parties sorted themselves out. There is not a single republican who will vote for tax increase, no single democrat who will vote for against tax increases. Is to stopty Government Spending, democrats are all for Government Spending. Before, when nixon was president , he argued every day with ted kennedy, from my home state of massachusetts. He wanted a bigger government. It is easier to compromise between bigger and much bigger. Every year, next and and kennedy would get together and the government would get bigger, but not as much as kennedy wanted, more the next month it, somewhat bigger. You could compromise. Today, the republicans want lower taxes, the modern democrats want higher taxes. Reid,esident and harry they said they would not look at tax reform if it did not raise 1. 5 trillion from the American People over a decade. They want a tax increase. Republicans want this to be someone wantsl to go east and someone wants to go west. What is the compromise . The parties separated themselves out in a normal, natural, reasonable, comprehensible manner. Which i think is good. People should know what they are buying when they vote for a candidate. And also, the parties want to go in starkly different directions. There are issues where we compromise, maybe not at the same scene. Speed. Prison reform and judicial reform, those are areas where we get republican and democratic agreement, but on top of spending, not until democrats change. Host on the republican line, here is jim. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have a suggestion on the tax code. Why dont we just burn the tax code that we have at this time and go to a 10 National Sales tax at the retail level . Ok, i am in. It would not make nearly as much money as the federal government thinks that it needs to to continue on their current path at the present. There is the argument and i did a debate at the conference just this saturday, with neil boortz, an advocate of the fair tax, the sales tax at a regional level. I argued about going to a flat rate income tax. The good news for folks who want to reform the tax code, as both neil boortz and myself, fair tax people,nd the flat tax we agree on a whole bunch of stuff. There are two key things, the single rate tax, whether you tax it or you when you buy something, or when you earn a dollar. You tax it at one rate. Why . This is in massachusetts this is the tax rate and you cant have this in massachusetts. Five times, the advocates of Big Government have tried, through the judicial process, have tried to put on the ballot a measure to allow a graduated income tax with different rates. Democrats, liberal ted kennedy and George Mcgovern a voted that down. Because this is a very sophisticated argument. You can raise ted kennedys taxes and then raise mine and then you can come back for me. Ted kennedy will not help me anymore. You can divide people into different groups, or one at a time. That is what you want to avoid. You wanted to look everyone in the eye, and say, i have an idea and you dont want to pay for it. You dont want people taken out one at a time, the Richard Speck theory of tax increases. Clinton said, i will mug two percent of you, obama says he you,get one percent of then they come back and tax everybody. Obama said he would not tax poor people, and he had the tax on cigarettes, people who have an average income of 40 40,000 per year. First,ll tax the rich then we come for you but thank you for helping us mug them. But everyone on the same footing, with the government, and right now they tax it when you earn it, save it, invested, and the Capital Gains if you have a house, there is the property tax and if youre stupid enough to die, there is the estate tax. Tax it once and go away and go do something else. Here is eric from seattle. Independent line. Taxes, this ist nonsense. Reagan raise the debt ceiling 13 17 , and the tax is at mitt romney played paid nine percent. We have a trillion dollars worth of tax loopholes in the row and you have all of these republican politicians finding a which you be, treason against the country of the United States. With the constitution of the United States. Why would like to ask you is this, mr. Grover norquist, mr. No taxpayers. When bill clinton got his tax raised for the top two percent, and the tax code, president obama got his taxes raised. Your next step and your next plan is this. Dont let a democratic president govern as a democrat. You do the same issues when you come out from time to time, involved in the threat and the number of issues and you are still the same person and you conspiracy with treason with the republican politicians behind you. Guest ok. One thing we talk about in washington is the lack of civility. If you dont understand someones position or dont agree with it, or misrepresented, calling other people traders is not the way to go because you lose peoples interest. We have to have civil conversation. We have a tax code that kills jobs. The governments own statistics say that if we reduce the marginal tax rate we would have more Economic Growth and more jobs. You mentioned reagan, who took the top marginal tax rate. This is the important difference between the average tax rate and the marginal tax rate. Walking across a river with an average depth of one foot. It really does matter what happens on the margins. The tax rate was 70 and we took this down to 28 . We had a tremendous economic boom that did not slow down. Broke Herbert Walker bush his promise to the American People, you can read this on our website. To the American People. Obama and harry reid sometimes understand this and maybe they did not read it very quickly very clearly, this was a pledge not to raise the taxes of the American People. We took marginal tax rates down when the first george bush raised those rates and we had a stalled economy, when we took the Capital Gains tax down we started to see a takeoff off in the economy in the late 90s. Marginal tax rates help create jobs. He mentioned the vote on unions. The organization was connected with that . , the german car company has a manufacturing plant in chattanooga. United auto workers, fresh off of making detroit work over the last 30 years, driving that city into bankruptcy and the number of United Auto Workers by about two thirds, from where it used to be. By being a rather aggressive labor union, damaged the companies and the industry in the neighborhood of the communities that they were in. The people of chattanooga said, they dont want that here, the payment for work is quite good and this was not going to get any better. Dues,aid a lot of union and also, because they are spent on political activity, a lot of Union Members dont approve of. Unions are major supporters of gun control legislation, which most Union Members do not support, on a bunch of leftwing issues that have nothing to do with helping working people get through. In fact, they work against that. There was a vote from the voters in chattanooga, at the volkswagen plant, they voted no to the union. Even though the union said they had Signature Cards from a number of people. They said they forged my signature, and the National Labor relations board, a majority of people supported by president obama, who owes his to this campaign and he put people up there who said, we dont care. Go away. We have a real problem because theyre not enforcing the law. And even with things stacked against the workers, volkswagen, the german auto company, the unions and germany told the company there, we will hurt you if you dont give us this. Folks like and said, we are neutral. Opponents of the union volksw agen said, we are neutral. Opponents of the union, who were black shirts they were to different rooms to talk to them. The center for worker freedom is what . Guest we do tax reform and digital liberty, to keep the internet taxfree, dealing with tangible property rights. Instarted over a decade ago, 1998. We are working on paycheck protection in california. Right now the unions can take your dues and spend this on politics even if you dont want to. There are one or two ways to do paycheck protection. One of them is the politics they can ask you for. They can ask you for the portion that goes to politics. Sometimes they underestimate the amount of money the National Associate Education Association said that this was zero. Or, we can do what wisconsin and the number of other states have said. You can have any kind of dues that you want but you have to go ask the teacher. We will not take it out of their paycheck. You can go and ask them. Host what did your organization do, specifically, with the uaw thing . Guest we were talking to the broader community, with 13 billboards around the plant. Autoworkers had been to the city of detroit. They drove it into the ground. The job losses associated with and the growing membership, the political and leftwing local contributions that fly in the face of where the workers would like to see their resources going. Why are union dues going to politics . I think this was a very helpful educational campaign, and usually accompany talks with workers and say, this is why we think this is a bad idea. In thewas allowed to be plant saying that this was a bad idea. The workers made a very strong statement. Host speaking of strong statements, the uaw put out a statement, saying guest they are a little mad because they lost. They spent 5 million trying to organize this, they put guys on the Assembly Line from other places who were working for uaw, not for wvvw. They would not let any other voices being heard in the plant. They had to turn to radio. Cain is the outgoing president. He has not been good at organizing. Everyone knew that and this was the opening wage into organizing plants in alabama and mississippi and South Carolina as well. If this had passed they may have been able to use car checks to force management to surrender without allowing a vote. Now i am sure that if this comes to a vote, if the union wants to organize the other plant they will have to have a vote. In chattanooga they were not forced to have a vote. We will just force them into the union. Your organization will be involved in other types of this . Are very supportive of the Workers Rights Movement in wisconsin, the unions for the government they come in and take a thousand dollars out of the teachers paycheck, 50,000 per year without making any case as to why they should. His kind of abuse has taken. Unions can play a useful role, as they have, but the uaw shows that some unions have just been of what theyecause did. Host Grover Norquist is the guest. Alan, independent line. Caller thank you for taking my call. , you spoke about what i was going to talk to talk about with the previous caller. Bill is tofair tax come out sometime over the next month or so. 25ld you support having hr come out on the floor of the house with this can be debated, or we can look at it and have an up or down vote on it . Guest sure. Justmentioned earlier, i had a debate on saturday. Out in phoenix. Nice, on75 degrees and the question of fair tax and flat tax. Sacrifices, to make any place with the temperature is above 75 degrees. I think we should have a lot of discussions about tax reform, and certainly the fair tax is one avenue. One big concern with the fair tax. We want to make sure that we end up with one tax that taxes income, consumed income, at one rate. The danger that we have is if we start a conversation about a value added tax, or a retail sales tax, the guys on the left always wanted the tax in addition to the individual income tax and the business income tax. Two want to have not tapeworms inside your stomach but three. And they grow. You end up with three big ones. The europeans who put into that promised that the other taxes would be done in and it would not grow. Total Government Spending and total government taxation increased more rapidly after the fact that income taxes increased rapidly after that went in. When you see the government it gets hungry and it wants more. The real danger is the income tax and the consumption tax and the retail sales tax. You have to have an amendment to prevent income tax from coming back before you could days safely do Something Like the fairfax. Here is tracy from the independent line. Caller i am sorry if i am interrupting. You and i are not very good friends. We own the business and when we buy equipment, that makes the business with a little more money. Would you agree with that . Guest use that money and hopefully got something of equal value. Mader you spent that and equipment to make more money. Guest if you buy a piece of equipment you have the same value. Money, you just make traded money for what you hope is 1000 worth of and you are short 1000. Caller you buy a piece of machinery to do something that you dont pay a person to do. That is why depreciate every few years. You didnt add to the value of the company when you bought that piece of equipment. I think that you can understand that. Talking about the deficit, the rate of the deficit has gotten more under this president than president bush. He did not have the wars, or Medicare Part d. The rate of the deficit has actually dropped and the amount of money that the federal government is spending has actually dropped. How many times has Ronald Reagan raised how many times did he raise the tax rate . Guest you make a couple of very good points. Caller i am not finished. Guest rapid up. Caller he raise it 11 times and we own the business. Arene who believes that you spending 35 with all those tax taxes there, people are not buying what youre selling, mr. Norquist. Host guest in georgia, youre trying to get rid of the personal income tax because people are moving into tennessee and into florida. So you may not have noticed it but as you look around the country, the government keeps these statistics. People and jobs and income work into the moving to the low income tax rates like nevada and wyoming, new hampshire. They moved out of the high income tax rates. We have a little test. This is not the United States versus france or canada, where it is cold or something. Within the United States, people move from one state to the other, they move companies and jobs and there is a reason why foreign Auto Companies dont put them in detroit. Ichigan has high taxes they move to other states that workers, ands for where they are not abusive to workers on the tax policy. You can hire more people. Important, with how we have taxes reduced, because people move to areas with lower taxes. This is a very important part of why we are talking about tax reform, to bring rates down. Marginal tax rates, the actual tax on the additional dollar is what makes her decision. The average taxes a vaguely interesting number but no one makes their decision based on the average. These are things that have happened already. All decisions are about the future. The question is, what is the marginal tax on this decision . To find that expensing is not only a lot simpler, that small business, you have the obama expense idea, and expenses have gone up so dramatically, the deficit and spending have come down since republicans took the house in 2010. Went and passed it has comend down from the high rate that we took it to, and hope to keep it at. That, we just cant go further on tax reform. We wont have tax reform,. Until we have a Republican Senate and president. Endemic and pass something that has put together and a more robust capital cost system, we will be trying to raise taxes. We will be trying to raise the number of jobs in the country. House Speaker Boehner is going to meet president obama. One thing that will talk about his immigration reform. Ande do you see this going the you see reform whether this goes or not . In five or six different pieces and some could move sooner than others. I think we should have a Guestworker Program for sure. And everyone here should have a phd. We would love to have you stay here and start companies, 40 of fortune 500 companies are run by the sons and daughters and a lot ofon brings opportunity, we are the future and china is not. It is because we have immigration and a growing population i was old enough to know when japan was the future but they cant assimilate people. We do all of that better than the rest of the world. A fairer mark a fair amount of this goes on but when our parents showed up and were taken out, then we have the new guy. The kids who are over at age we had to do something to let those guys from high school be able to go to high school you oppose the debt ceiling bill and they passed it, what do you think about the passage in the speakers performance in that role . He was in a difficult situation. There were taxes with the debt ceiling and some kind of delay in obamacare. He has promised people he will not enforce certain things but he can always change his mind. There were 13 republicans who have never voted for any debt ceiling, ever. There are 20 republicans uncomfortable with any debt ceiling. They do not demand something in return for the debt ceiling. To get a pound of flesh for the debt ceiling. The one group of republicans who could not vote for the debt ceiling, they understand they are good but it does make it impossible to get something for the debt ceiling. Is clean debt ceiling different than what i sent a ter opposing, if people are getting democratic votes. I want to get something for the debt ceiling but i dont want to pay the ransom. Grover norquist, americans for tax reform. Thank you for your time. Coming up is democratic senator chris murphy, and a number of the Foreign Relations committee, with what is going on in the ukraine. But first, an update. A ugandan newspaper has posted a list of what they call the top 200 homosexuals. Doubting some ugandans shouting outing some ugandans. This is after passing an antigay law. John kerry says this is a tragic day for uganda and went on to warn that washington could cut aid to the government of the east african nation. Back in the United States, a ban onobama unveiled junk food and this is an move by thegressive organization a controversy ire of Food Companies and conservatives. The food wellness policy would require marketing of all food entering stuff all in line with the same healthier standards that are expected to be required of food sold in the 20142015 school year. Both sets of measures stemmed from the 2010 hungerfree kids act. Boehner,ts with john and they will announce publicprivate partnerships boosting manufacturing. He delivered remarks to organize infraction, the political nonprofit supporting his agenda. Cspan is covering these events. Those are the latest headlines on cspan radio. Cspan. Org website makes it easier than ever to follow washington, d. C. On facebook and twitter and other social networks. Andcan access daily events create short video clips and share them with your friends on facebook and twitter and other social networks. And you can send links to your video clips via email. Find this on our video player or look for the icon links on the site. Watch washington on the new cspan. Org. If you see something interesting, click it and share it with your friends. What we are told that with the popular imagination, there are all sorts of citizens and marches and demonstrations that occur, that are done by these famous iconic people. Tired she, who was so refused to get up from the bus and my come rate, alabama, and basically a young preacher who, even the president referred to during the election as this young preacher from georgia, Martin Luther king, junior. A mass of africanamericans from racial oppression. Stuff,could do this jesse could run and barack could fly, all of these things, they sound good but they really simplify a much more complicated history. They involve so many africanamericans, women and men who proactively dismantled racial segregation including rosa parks. She was an activist. With a concerted strategic effort to try to transform democratic institutions. He worked in black our studies. Sunday, he will take your questions, indepth. Live for three hours. On book tv. Washington journal continues. Continues. That this headline reads the ukraine severe believes the usa near up in a tight spot. Guest i dont know why we would be a tight spot. There is a different difficult situation. They are trying to form a new government after president yanukovych has fled. But in that up evil is the opportunity for the ukrainian people. They were sick and tired of the government that had become corrupt and was divorced from the population on the street, that ultimately made the fateful decision to reverse course, instead of doing as yanukovych promised, citing an associate agreement with the European Union. Russia, orienting to something the people of the ukraine did not want. There is a chance to set the right course for the people of the ukraine, a corruptionfree government with true democratic reforms, an orientation towards the future with europe. This is a matter for the ukrainian people to decide. To supportould be the wishes of the American People and there are a variety of ways we can do this. Ultimately, from the very beginning, this is a decision about the people of the ukraine and the United States, the people of the u. S. Should betis be there to support them. Host what is the best way the u. S. Could be in the situation . Guest they are in support of the protest movement, a big part of the story as to why there is the opportunity now, for the ukrainian people to get what they want. They said that peace should be observed in that square. We came down hard on yanukovych when he violated that peace. He sent forces into the square, repeatedly. Resulting in dozens of people killed. Role, andk it was our are sanctions that forced yanukovych from office. What can we do to support this new government . There is no assistant package and the United States can play a real a limited role in the assistance package. The amount of money that the ukraine is 35 billion. It was 35 billion and the number is getting bigger and bigger. The United States does not have the ability to do that. We can lead the conversation to make that loan available to the ukraine on the best terms possible. And then, we can do some work with available money that we do have in the state department to try to see the Civil Society movement in that country, which does need to become strengthened, so you dont have the opportunity for another yanukovych to steal the people. The United States can continue to be a true friend for the ukrainian people. Ultimately we have to recognize that this is essential a decision that has been made there, not by the United States or europe or russia. But we can support the ukrainian people. Host u. S. Polities sit policy decisions with senator chris murphy of connecticut. Call ave questions wj is our twitter name. You were there recently, in the ukraine . What did you see then, and how does this play into what you are seeing now . Was there with john mccain and we were there at the height of the early protest movement. We were there at the main square in kiev and we spoke on sunday afternoon about to about 500,000 or one Million People who were peacefully assembled, to win back control of the government. We were meeting with the Student Leadership and that movement. The protestd in movement is it really is and was fairly nonpolitical. This was not generated by political opposition to yanukovych, with the entirety of the local establishment there. They were not going to be satisfied by yanukovych leaving. They wanted wholesale changes in the government. That is the challenge over the next few days. This new government . Is this just the opposition party. That is one of the things that we clean from our trip. We have to have what we will call technocrats, people who are not politicians, experts in running bureaucracies. There will be some representatives of the protest movement. Becausel be a challenge of political opposition. They feel like they have been waiting in line to run the country for a long time but their simple replacements of the yanukovych regime will not satisfy the people on the square. James is calling us from wisconsin. Twice inur country has a row back street mobs to throw out elected president s. You had morsi in egypt. Now the same thing is happening in the ukraine. We all see what is happening. The caller raises an guest theoint guest caller raises an important point. When senator mccain and i went to the square, we were careful about the words that were used. We went there in the wake of yanukovych bringing the Police Forces onto the square to forcibly break up those protests. One of the things the u. S. Has stood for is the idea that people anywhere in the world should have the right to peacefully protest against their government, and when those civil rights and human rights are acknowledge, with some notable exceptions, had stood up. Ultimately, it is a decision for the people of the ukraine to make, but our interest has always been making sure that there is space to have this political debate rather than dictating the terms. Russia has played a different role here. They have threatened the ukraine over and over again with economic illegal sanctions, if they did not do with the russians wanted. The u. S. Has played a much more fair game here in which we are not dictating what the outcome should be. Ifare just saying that people want a lot complaints against the government, they should not be run out of public spaces by the police and army. The russian Prime Minister saying guest the russian sob not made any secret of the fact that they do not want ukraine to sign and Association Agreement with europe. They have made that clear behind closed doors. We heard that when we were there even the russians said they would shut the border down to stop trade going back and forth from russia, would consider cutting off gas supplies, which would make for a cold winter and spring in the ukraine. Russia is going to consider a range of options, many of them illegal, according to International Trade agreements, to stop them from joining europe. This is a legitimate government, they voted, albeit without members of yanukovychs government. I would hope ultimately that this new government includes members from yanukovychs party. That would add to is legitimate see, but there is no doubt, under the constitution of ukraine, the parliament has the power to expel yanukovych from office. Lets be honest, yanukovych lost legitimacy as president when he tried to forcibly break up these protests, and killed dozens of protesters. At that point, the parliament had every right to say enough is enough, we need to establish a new government. Russia is not like that because yanukovych had become their guy, but does not make the government illegitimate. Host jamie on the democrat line. How can anyone claim the u. S. Government has any ability to judge other governments based thatidence proving Building Seven was brought down on a controlled and demolition on 9 11. You should know this is part of a campaign of people calling in about that subject. Guest i do not want to dignify that with a response. In the ukraine, we have specific interests. We want a unified ukraine. We believe it should be oriented with europe, which is where our interests are aligned. Host new hampshire. Gene on the independent line. Caller how far do you think the United States can go in helping the russiansthout cutting off the gas lines or interfering with trade . I will take my answer offline. You have identified the central issue for this government, the defining paradigm for yanukovych as well. I do not deny that yanukovych was presented with a difficult quagmire. I spent about two hours with president yanukovych late that evening sunday night in kiev about two months ago. He made it clear he was in a tough spot. If he was to sign the Association Agreement with europe, he was wearing his economy would be devastated in the short term by russian sanctions. They rely on russian gas to heat their homes and run their industry. We will need to convince the ukrainian that they will need to accept shortterm payment. It can be mitigated by an International Package come a but ultimately this is not a zerosum game. The russians will make it seem to the ukrainian that if they orient with europe they are completely cutting off relations with russia. That is not the case. Russia cannot afford to seize a trade relationship with the , thebasket of the region ukraine. While there might be pain in the short term, in the longterm, ukraine will be able to enjoy open trade membership as part of the eu, and continue to have an important and robust relationship with russia. Russia cannot afford to forever shut down those borders. There will be shortterm pain, and that will ultimately be worth it in my mind and in the minds of protesters in that square, because of the huge benefits that will come to ukraine from being a member of the European Union. Lets turn to a republican from california who had an oped in usa today. Guest i really do not think this is a proxy fight between the United States and russia. Tonow a lot of people want make this into a new chapter in a new cold war, but it is not. This is about supporting one of the biggest and most important countries in the eurasian region. Be able to determine the future for themselves. That this iseople the u. S. And russia once again fighting, not in military terms, but economic terms, over a country that we both care about. Ultimately, this is about us supporting the wishes of ukraine. There is a u. S. Interest here. We are in the middle of negotiating a trade agreement with europe. To my state, it is enormously important. Of our trade in connecticut with europe. If the ukraine is part of the European Union and is part of this new trade agreement, that could result in billions of dollars in new Economic Opportunities for the u. S. So we have an economic interest in the ukraine being part of the European Union, and we should not be shy about making clear that interest. From mount laurel, new jersey. Republican line. A majority of the questions that i had were answered about russia. How far would we go if russia were to cut off their energy and could the you help them in that regard permanently eu help them in that regard permanently . Guest many european nations are dependent on russian oil and gas. In the shortterm term there are not many solutions. There are other ways to bring oil and gas into the country. There is an important port where butan bring lng resources, the bigger question is how we provide Energy Dependence independence in europe. So that countries are not dependent on russia for energy. The United States can play a big role there. First, we have enormous new gas reserves, and we will be having an important discussion about whether we export this abundance of gas and oil we have. Readyare a lot of importers in europe of those resources. Second, we can help countries in Eastern Europe discover their own shale gas reserves. Ukraine is a perfect example. We have a couple of companies in the ukraine trying to figure out whether they have deposits of oil and gas, which we think they do. There is a major geopolitical conversation to be had around energy independence. This is just another sign of when we do not help our friends in europe become energy independent, whether by building their own domestic capabilities, or helping them develop solar and wind, geothermal capability, it increases the ability of russia beyond what they would normally have. This is john from farmington, connecticut. Emigrants line. Supporter. Lo, i am a i voted for you in many occasions. Democrats line. I have for you is, in terms of our experience with this problem in the ukraine, is re a way that we can rather than trying to solve that problem, get our congress to work properly . One with your mind and background could go a long way to make things better for working people. Tother thing that i wanted get through was to correct Grover Norquist. He blamed unions for the trade imbalance. It was the cars that were not properly designed and they were not economical, like volkswagens are. The other thing about is Building Seven thing, it was in the a book book. Guest i did not hear the conversation here, but i have always driven an american car. Driving a better american car than i have before. I am pleased to see more chevys and forts out there than i have for a long time. I think the caller is right, the quality is fundamentally different today, which is driving the market for new vehicles. His first point is, of course, right. When i am talking to the people i will occasionally get a question about Foreign Relations, but it is more about why congress cannot get its act together to read jobs and bring Economic Opportunity back to this country. I love this job, i fought hard to represent connecticut in the senate but there are a lot of days in which i wonder what people are thinking as we fight over easy, simple things that we used to be able to agree on, like extending emergency unemployment benefits. The minimum wage, which seems like a fight between democrats who want to raise the minimum wage, and republicans who do not , that has always been bipartisan as well. That should be our effort, clearly. The good thing about the foreign is aions committee is, it place where republicans and democrats can Work Together. We have largely cap politics out of that committee over the last year. Senator mccain and i do not agree on a lot when it comes to domestic policy, although he is one of the more Reasonable Republicans in his caucus, but we Work Together on issues like ukraine. Maybe the Silver Lining in this is when republicans and democrats are working together itthese big global issues, is maybe a platform on which to build cooperation to work on domestic issues on which tend to be more fractious. Frank from chicago. Independent line. A question for senator murphy about trade. Ukrainealking about the. What about us with nafta and all of that . The people were against him but you went ahead and approve it. Maybe we should have the same thing, have a revolution and go to washington and have it straightened out . I think the distinction is between free trade and fair trade. Philosophically, free trade makes enormous sense, when you itrease trade barriers, increases the ability to sell goods around the rest of the world. We are only five percent of the world market, 95 exists outside of the u. S. And when you engage in socalled free trade, it actually the strength of the middleclass in other countries which, over time, eliminates the difference in labor costs between the u. S. And those emerging nations. China is a perfect example. Wage rates are increasing by 25 a year and there are a lot of estimates that you will see a reindustrialization of the u. S. Over the next decade, in part, because it does not make sense to produce things in china versus the United States. I was not here when nafta was passed, but i have voted consistently against many freetrade agreement that i have seen because they are not fair trade. With au negotiate a deal country like korea, or as we are today with a number of civic nations, that is your one chance pacific nations, that is your one chance to increase labor standards so that they do not immediately cut the cost of doing business in the u. S. Compared to doing it in another country. We need to get tougher in these agreements to make sure that that work does not immediately flee places like detroit and also other places like new britain, connecticut. We do not make a lot of things any longer because they are now made in places with freetrade agreements. I mention we were negotiating this agreement with europe. That is the transatlantic agreement. That is actually a great agreement. In europe, they have similar, if not longer, environmental and labor standards. So they will immediately undercut the cost of doing business in the United States. That is an example of an agreement we should be working on. How about giving the president fasttrack authority on these agreements . Guest the president has been largely cut out of these agreements. I would like to see new terms under which the congress has a greater role in the initial steps of negotiating agreements. Paul is from north carolina. Democrat line. Caller i want to comment on the all country supporting civil unrest or other countries. When you look at what took place in our country with civil rights , stomping the vietnam war, it was all done through civil unrest and peaceful protest. Some turned violent, but by and ofge, it was because aggressive authorities. Since Richard Nixon we have seen social law declined to the point where protest is not allowed as it once was. The trade agreements and i am a journalist, and i followed all of this and wrote peoplevely on this were against these agreements, but they were not even allowed to march in places where they were seen. When they were, they were portrayed by the media as being left wing lunatics over hippies that were out of control and out of touch. We saw the same thing in the 99ers movement. They basically rated wall street. As a matter of fact, they started to get even more money. We hear this a lot, which is, how can the United States go and tell the yanukovych regime to respect the protest regime when local governments kicked me occupy wall street people out of public spaces . , and apples and oranges the wall Street Movement was an important phenomenon, which i largely supported as it was raising issues that we have not talked about. It has, in part, led to this discussion that we are having now about inequality and taking on poverty. We accept the right that people had the ability to protest. But we do need to control our public spaces. You have thes said right to protest but we want to make sure that you are doing it in a manner that does not completely upset the civil bounds of society. We are sitting here on the edge of the National Mall in washington, and there is no issue of people having access to that space. Civil protest is alive and well, having lived through the tea party movement, having my town halls and Public Meetings taken over by people who had disagreements with my vote on healthcare law. There is no problem with people expressing their disagreement with the government. That is not what is going on with the ukraine. Up,le were being boxed taken away, sometimes never to be seen from again, if they disagreed with the government. Laws were passed to stop certain individuals from running for government because they posed a threat to the president. A primary opponent of yanukovych was put in jail up until two of mitt, the equivalent romney losing an election and then put into prison for his political crimes. There is no sense in comparing the state of civil disobedience in the United States with what is happening in the ukraine. The country is still free and fair with the way that we respect our people and government. We should stand up for that in other countries as well. Host republican line, miami, florida. I agree and disagree with a few of the comments. I do not know about the criminal action that you just mentioned. There is a stark contrast going on in venezuela because of the tremendous amount of oppression. Withnderground current what i would call a terrorist movement. This is something the United States has been watching on the sidelines. These people in the ukraine, they are in public places. They have absolutely nothing. Bare necessities are missing. This is not keeping them from saying enough is enough. It is the samea, as it has been for so many years. Why does the United States stand by the sidelines . Guest i will admit i have not much of what is happening in venezuela as the chairman of the European Affairs subcommittee. It comes to cuba, we have not been on the sidelines. Members of the senate and the department have been there. The Obama Administration passed sanctions, the senate was prepared to pass another set of sanctions. The clear position of the United States has been what has led to this change in regime. Merit inat there is the claim that the u. S. Has these principles and lisa bentley selectively get involved in some places and not other places, but ultimately this is a peaceful transition to a new government in the ukraine. , on the streets, will be seen as a great friend in making the transition happen. Mclean, virginia. Independent line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Points. Hree quick i will take the answers off the air. That yanukovych was elected for the first time in 2010 41 fiveyear term and that elections were scheduled for 2015 . Second, why is it ok for Foreign Ministers to show up at both tests protests and support them . Wouldnt it be similar to leaders from mexico or canada coming and saying we agree that your government is corrupt . And why isnt more of america talking about the significant portion of the opposition in the ukraine made up of far right all editions, and including from the , who is openly fascist and racist and they do not want to join the eu, and consider them a bunch of gays and jews . Let me take them one at a time. You are right, yanukovych was elected, and i understand the difficult position. Yanukovych was elected and we are not in the business of encouraging rebellions and revolutions on the streets against elected leaders because we ultimately think elections are the place where you should settle your differences. Yanukovychere is lost his legitimacy to govern when he used force to break up the united, and states did not go there in any meaningful way until the president tried to break up the peaceful protests here that is why senator mccain and i went. We certainly got a lot of grief from people asking why two u. S. Senators were going there to support the overthrow of an elected government, and we thought there were human rights violated their. I think that answers your second question as to why you had Foreign Ministers and foreign leaders who are on the square. It is because we are standing up for the idea that people should be able to lodge protest against their government. You are right, there is an element of the opposition that has some radical ideals, and there is an element of antisemitism on that square. I would tell you, having been there, if there were 500,000 people there, maybe a couple thousand represented that viewpoint. By and large, this movement completely rejects those radical and prejudicial ideas. I have confidence this new government is going to be inclusive, tolerant, and be part of our job as members of the Foreign Relations committee, to make sure that those more radical elements do not have a seat at the middle of the table. Host tell us about this interim leader. Guest you have the new speaker of the parliament but you do not yet have a Prime Minister. Will bereports that the new Prime Minister. Yulia tymoshenko has been in jail. Starormer boxing champion that we know about, probably the most popular political figure in the country right now. He would likely have a place in this new government. So you have this temporary speaker who has president ial powers today, but he is only there temporarily. We will ultimately have a new Prime Minister and in president ial elections. It is going to be very interesting as to what happens because the party of regions, the party of yanukovych, cannot be forced completely to the sidelines. They do represent an enormous amount of people. They should have a place in this new temporary government, and should likely have a candidate in the elections. Yuliaestion is, will tymoshenko, the exiled Prime Minister, will she run as well . You could have a pretty messy freeforall in this next election. My hope is the opposition will unite as much as possible. Host do you think the u. S. Will become part of the monitoring process . Guest absolutely. I am not as worried now that yanukovych is out of the way, freethis will be a election. I think everyone will make sure that the elections are free and fair. It could be a bit of a freeforall in terms of the candidates for election. Host timothy is caller from schenectady. Concern, being a child of the cold war, is always a threat from the east. I was concerned about how this could lead to a global conflict. Whenever we seem to have these elections that are monitored, or involved,r europe is it always ends up in violence. Was concerned about that violence escalating on a global scale between russia and the European Union, the u. S. And those two superpowers. Guest there is certainly some concern about russia over the. Ext months i think it is irresponsible to talk about the potential for russia to move some kind of offensive force into the Coastal Region of the ukraine that has a Russian Military base, important import would be imports. A fundamental mistake on the part of the russians. I do not think this will result in any military confrontation at between the u. S. And europe, and russia. Ultimately, we should be working with russia. President obama and president clinton had a call last week trying to figure out a common putin had a call last week trying to figure out a common path. For all the differences we have with russia, we are working together on an awful lot of things. Whether it is serious, afghanistan, counterterrorism, there are a lot of common interests, and we should not forget that when we talk about a potential new cold war emerging. I do not think there is a danger of that because we have an alliance on a lot of important issues. Host georgia, independent line. Asker i would like to klitchko. Has there been any talk about a two state solution, one going with europe, the other going with asia . Isst i do not think there the possibility of a partition of the ukraine. We have to stand up pretty clearly in support of the unified ukraine. There have been some protest movements in the eastern part, but ultimately, most of the Political Leadership there says they will respect the decisions made in kiev. Click co. Is impressive. He is new to politics but is learning. As you can imagine, he is enormously popular, representing the new wave of political activist. I am not sure whether he will run in these elections, but he would have a fair shot to win. He may represent a new way of doing things there because his party is relatively new, is outside the traditional dichotomy between yanukovych and tymoshenko. He could represent a new path forward that might be supported by these protesters. He did some courageous things in the protest. He was up on stage but also down on the streets. In a couple of instances, the protesters themselves were trying to get violent and take over government buildings. Klitchko himself stood in the way of the protesters to quell the violence. I was very impressed with him, got to know him. He would be a very good leader, but time will tell. Chris murphy, thank you for your time. Coming up, we will ask you to comment in the last 45 minutes or so, on the announcement by the pentagon of military spending cuts. Here is your chance to do so in our last segment. We will take those calls after this news update from cspan radio. An update on the ukraine coming from across the newswire. A spokesperson says the former chief of staff of the ousted ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych is hospitalized after being wounded by gunfire. No details were available on the attack. A spokesperson confirming the official resigned his post on sunday. The former president s chief of staff was among the figures most despised by protesters. Turning to the philippines, please clashed briefly with 300 protesters who were opposed to a planned visit by president obama and continued military presence by the u. S. In the country. Shieldsice held up across a road to the u. S. Embassy and were pushed back by demonstrators, prompting the police to act. There were no serious injuries. President obama is scheduled to visit the philippines in april as part of his asian tour. In washington on capitol hill, the senate plans to vote on whether to advance a bill on whether to advance Health Education and other benefits for veterans and their families. It is expected to win the 60 votes needed to begin debate, but the ap says its fate is unclear. Republicans fear the measure is too costly and thats too much money to the deficit. The measure would cost 21 billion over the next decade. The senate meet at 10 00 eastern time. Cspan2. E coverage at those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. I think there are some myths out there. People think the maraschino cherry is some iraqi missile he preserved product, but it is no different from a pickled cherry, and the brine process is no different from how you make wind. Wine. I would not call it a healthy product, but it is a tasty treat. Here are cherries in various stages of process. Even though we put them in water, they will still have brine in the fruit, so they will go through an extensive washing to get the sulfur and the calcium out of the fruit. The process of making maraschino cherries is you are basically taking the fruit and soaking it in a progressively stronger and stronger sugar and color solution. Over the course of that schedule, you will see the color intensity picked up as the sugar concentration picks up. Here are some early in the process, very lightly colored. You can see how much darker that fruit is, that is darker along. During a normal day you will see yellow, pink, deep red. It is just that in cycle of infusion of the cycle, where it is in the process. Next weekend, a look behind the history and literary life of salem, oregon. Host it was yesterday that the pentagon announced plans for deep spending cuts. You probably saw that on cspan. If you missed it, you can watch it on our website www. Cspan. Org. For the next 40 minutes or so, we want to talk about not only the cuts, but your reactions to them. Here are the numbers to call this morning. To give you a sketch of those planned cuts, the washington es showing just a sampling of that. You can see that in the the washington times. If you missed the announcement, go to our website to see the full news conference. For the remainder of the time, we are getting your thoughts on it. If you go to the front page of the detroit free press, a picture of john dingell, his wife, an announcement that he made yesterday about his plan to leave congress after 60 years. Writing. Odd spangler in the side story to this, there is talk about who might succeed him. The headline says debbie dingell, early favorite to replace her husband. Ahe Washington Post has little bit of the history, and they do it with graphics. The seat in question, including the representative, 81 years that the seed has been held by a dingell. Turning our attention now to deep military cuts announced yesterday. Your thoughts on it. Debbie is from fredericksburg, virginia. Republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have some comments i would like to share. I know that the country is in dire straits with budget cuts and the government is trying to figure out what in the world they are going to do with , but i dour budget not feel that cutting our our military personnel down is going to solve any great issue. We need them. We have always needed them. They have always been there for us. That should be a separate issue. Journale wall street reporting that the budget cut 440,000 or 450,000 troops from the current 520,000. Patrick is up next, retired military on the independent line. Caller i am a vietnam veteran. With hazardous duty pay, i made 240 a month. Four years later, with agent orange cancer, the v. A. Has taken good care of me. I cannot say enough good things about it. I hope others are treated the same. Heardld be sad i Patrick Leahy talking about a guy losing both legs in iraq. It is great that the v. A. Is there. Whatever happens, we have to take care of them. Retireder meant military. This is chris. Caller i am a retired aviator. I will be matter of fact. Wehave admissions a side and have a force structure that supports those missions. Here is what the problem is. If we do not have an alignment with the correct force structure because of downsizing, training, and the other things around that, and we assign a mission that they cannot support, the end result will be significant loss of life, significant loss of equipment, and by the way, will we have time to ramp up to accommodate the situation . An unfortunate equation. People are involved. If we are not careful, we will go down a road that is not very pretty. As a navyperience commander. Look at the number of aircraft carriers we have now compared to when i was flying, which was 15. You have a training carrier that has to support training on both coasts, and you need periodic maintenance. Periodic maintenance will probably suffer. What is the end result of that . We saw that in the carter years where we did not have enough money for training or fixing things. The result was we had a reasonably hollow force. Msnbc has comment from did cheney on the announcement yesterday, the website saying the Vice President saying tony is next. Maryland, republican line. Ler good morning and take thank you for taking my call. Foremost, i am an american above anything else. I am concerned about the don sounds of the military. While everyone that has called in, as well as dick cheneys they are all spot on. The people in washington who are there now are making a big mistake. We live in a more dangerous world than we have ever been in the past. If the people in washington are not capable of doing their job, they should not apply in the first place. That is the biggest problem we have now. I appreciate you taking my call. Downsizing the military is a big mistake. We have to be ready and prepared for anything thrown upon us. Boehneruse speaker john will meet with the president this morning at the oval office. Administrative and congressional aides were court about what would be discussed, saying there would be a broad topic of agendas. Here is cal. Texas, retired. Have a hello, i know we balance on the sorts of things, but lets not Forget National defense. It should be our first priority. If we do not have our freedom, nothing else matters. The last thing that should be cut is the military. The fact that they are even considering getting to that world war ii level is alarming. Hard and alongk about what we can cut elsewhere, and we need to Work Together as a nation to solve the problem. Thank you for taking my call. Is next, missouri. Independent line. I served time with the national guard. I think we need to keep a Strong National guard and reserve. To back up the regular army. It is good for national defense. We need trained people when we need them. s, onin light of the cut twitter, everyone will be lobbying for their favorite machine. Fred from denver, colorado. Republican line. I guess iod morning, am a minority republican but i applaud the pentagon for deciding to have a slimmer, trimmer military. I like the idea they are advancing smaller but more effective combat units. In my term, when i served in the vietnam era, i noticed a lot of procurement that was padded in anticipation of congressional cuts. Of militarylot equipment that is, in my view, obsolete, and am glad the pentagon is addressing what our future needs should be. We must identify politically and militarily, who the opponent is in the future and not just think about world war ii or the vietnam era as a template for military material purchasing. Augusta, georgia. Albert, retired military. The army inme into the late 1950s. That is when the big rift was going on in the army. We use to call them the low iq, etc. Men that served in the korean war were released into the office core. Some received a direct commission but did not have a college degree. I retired from the army about 25 years ago. In california. I was in San Francisco as well, which was also closed. They are talking about the things they are letting go,. Anks in the jungles of vietnam, where i served, our tank was almost lost in the jungle. Now we want a more slim, active force. How many tanks can you load on an airplane . From twitter, raise taxes or cut military, adding the gop cannot have it both ways. Some of the comments on this announcement from the pentagon that occurred yesterday. If you want to give your thoughts as well for the remainder of the time. You might have heard in the first segment and knows those who are active and retired military, we have set a line a sign for you. David on the republican line. Caller it is good that we are cutting back. We have learned from the past. Justu look at rome, who kept on spending, they fell apart. It is time to cut back. I have to agree with the caller before me who said it was time to slim down and adjust. I think it is a very good idea. Thank you and have a nice day. Host athens, and athens, georgia. Caller i know the military does not tax their aqua hall, so a lot of young boys come out of the military has alcohol ask. If they taxed the alcohol there would be less of that going on. Also, the doctors in the military are paid huge salaries, and a lot do not just practice as doctors, they are just administrators. That sort of thing should be cut as well. Host you can see the full announcement from chuck hagel on the website www. Cspan. Org. Here is a little bit of it. Today, there are 520,000 activeduty soldiers, which the army plan to reduce to 400 90,000. However, the strategic choices in management review and the qdr determined that since we are no longer sizing the force for prolonged stability operations, an army of this size is larger than required to meet the demands of our defense strategy. Given reduced budgets, it is also larger than we can afford to modernize and keep ready. We have decided to further reduce activeduty army in 440 toh to a range of 450 soldiers. Tim, hillsboro, ohio. Listening to the gentleman, i was not in the military, but i am very proud of them, their necessity, everyone knows how important they are. Yes, we have a lot of bases and troops, but we should take care of them now, who are in active service, and give them the raise that congress gets. With ouris too free money. If we are going to be a police force all over the world, wont we need the military to back it up . It is more peaceful, but yet, it is more violent and dangerous in ways. We have to go in with all of this sophistication to battle these guys that are cowards that blow up their own people. We might need some pr work to get us boost in morale in fighting this very devious bunch of people. Money, like them to save but the military should do that on their own. Maybe not so many tanks. Maybe that guys point was of the to be considered. Host our conversation started early on the facebook page. It continues on with people adding their thoughts on the military spending cuts announced yesterday. You are welcome to comment. You could also comment on our twitter page, http twitter. Com cspanwj. One person says that forces should be cut to 350,000. Maintain navy and air force levels. Agece army and marine draft. James has been waiting. Fort worth, texas. Democrats whine, retired. Caller great topic. There are a couple of places where a huge amount of money can be saved in the budget without cutting one pair of boots on the ground. First, we are way too top heavy. I am a vietnam veteran. We have so many admirals and generals that are sitting around doing absolutely nothing, putting in 15 hours a week at the golf course and taking on huge retirements. The second thing is in contracting. My wife used to be the bookkeeper for a small contractor. These guys making 300 million a month, paying his highestpaid employee 20,000 excuse me, 30,000 a year, and he has his wifes car and his childrens education on the pentagons budget. The corruption in defense contracting and a number of high paid officers that are not earning their sheets. That is my comment. Dean from wisconsin, retired military. Trying to should stop balance the budget on the backs of the military every time there is a problem. I served in korea and vietnam. 22 years. I am sick and tired of what is taking place in the military. Host sea of tranquility on twitter offers a suggestion. Got to wonder what our true morality is these days. Would make a good segment, open up loans phones. Addare more than welcome to to that on twitter. John from alabama, vietnam veteran, hello. I first want to say a lot of people are talking about how they feel, but by the constitution of the United States, there is only one thing the country is responsible for, the defense of the country. Millionto cut 300 oneweek vacations, a lot of social things, but the government has not backed that. Wass worse now than when i there in the vietnam era. The government should get away from spending cuts in defense. This congressmen had this to say from washington. Are trying to do is solve our financial problems on the backs of the military here that cannot be done. If it could be done, it should not be done, but it cannot be done. If we cut the whole military budget, if we cut the whole discretionary budget, everything on annually as a congress, eliminate all of that. We would still be running a deficit of a half trillion dollars a year. I was goingm to say elephant in the room i would just say, the big animal, the gorilla in the room that everyone is avoiding is the mandatory spending. That, we areress just going to dig ourselves further into the hole. That is the real problem. We are trying to solve it on the backs of our military, and it cannot be done. The full announcement available at our website, www. Cspan. Org. Isters reporting that iraq signing a deal to purchase arms worthmunition from iran about 190 million, a move that would break embargo regulations. The state Department Adding that any trade with iran is in direct conflict with the u. S. You can find that. Or he on full story on reuters. Democrats line, thank you for waiting. Caller bank on for cspan. They should cut the budget. Thank god for cspan. Re are way too military too many military bases around the world. Because it cut it makes other countries angry at us. Having all of these bases and aircraft and submarines, and stuff like that. They should cut the military. Host the Supreme Court is taking up the issue of Greenhouse Gas permits. Usa today does quote writing today melinda from texas. Good morning, retired military. Caller a couple of points i want to bring up. If they are going to cut the military, why dont they look at the pentagon, oh cut one civilian job for one military job. Guys, the heavy ranking officers, it is time for them to cut their ranks. Another thing. Are qualified to be a cook, they should be cooks, not bring in civilians, contractors to do the job that they were trained to do. That is all i have to say. Another Supreme Court story, declining challenges to various gun laws in the Washington Post. Writing john from pennsylvania, republican line. Caller i am a registered republican. When i graduated in 1967, almost everyone i graduated with was either drafted or enlisted in the military. I was drafted in 1970. Our 2, 3, or four years, and we received nothing for our service. How many of the representatives and senators are collecting a big military pension . How many generals are there that are collecting retirement pay, and what is the retirement pay for these generals . After 20 years, at the age of 38, they can come out and go into congress and get another 174,000 a year. I find it very interesting that dodgert notorious draft in america, dick cheney, is now against military cuts. I guess when you make miller and millions of dollars from the military, it is all right to support the military. Charles from georgia, independent line, retired military. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am retired after 30 years, a retired sergeant major. I am of the opinion that we can sustain some cuts in the military. I remember eisenhower back in the 1960s telling us that we had to be aware of the militaryIndustrial Complex that was about to come about. It has come about long ago. That guy talking about cheney, his boys and halliburton, all of these guys that get the big contracts, all of these senators and congressmen that get these big contracts to support their constituent areas, they are happy to support it, but they do not care about the military. I am simply saying, we have to and somehowcious find some statement to put in congress. Paidongress is bought and for by big interest, those Big Companies in america. We need to go back to some from our founding fathers, where we care about our Country First and put our Political Parties first and business interests second. Look at all of the congressmen that go there with little or no money and end up with megabucks. Attorney general eric holder talking to attorney generals across the nation talking about samesex marriage. 10 00 as hehim at addresses the National Association of attorneys general. The front page of the new york issue. Looks at the you can read more in the New York Times this morning. Will address the association of attorneys general at 10 00. Winchester, virginia. Retired military, isaac thomas good morning. Retired military. Isaac, good morning. Caller it would be a bad idea to cut the military especially with what is happening in ukraine, the advancement that china has made with their military space program, as far as developing satellites capable blocking our gps satellites and things like that, command and control systems around the world. Start relyingd to more on ourselves and hold ourselves more accountable as citizens of this country, to start supporting ourselves a ontle more and stop relying other people. Sometimes you just have to make things happen. Host the Washington Post looks at the potential location of a future library. As prose,icago as far this is where barack obama worked as a community organizer, started his family. Cons, the winters are harsh. Another one, honolulu. Where the president was born. A beautiful plot available that would make for a great spot, but cons, it is far away. And then new york. There are rumors that the president would like to live in new york. Cons being that new york does not have the same hold on the obama biography. Call, maine, independent line. Almost 1000u. S. Has military bases around the world including europe, japan, in the pacific, that are unnecessary and unwanted by the People Living there. Twore coming up on closing decadelong wars. It make sense to reduce the size of the military force. We have done this several times in the past. Converting from a more economy to a peacetime economy, addressing the needs we have here in the u. S. It makes sense and is doable. Host from utah, this is michael. On the line for retired military. I am definitely against cuts related to the army. I was in the ninth fighters Infantry Division in hawaii where we were supposed to implement u. S. Forces but it never panned out. Host why are you against it . Caller i am for reducing the armed forces. My. O a more elite ar host are you concerned, like the Vice President , that we might need more people and efforts for future considerations . No, because if you have a quick, elite force, that should take care of everything. Leslie, from tennessee. Democrats line. Caller good morning. Waste incutting the federal government, and even in the military. A good place that we could start is the advertising dollars that they are giving to nascar and all of these other racing events , subsidizing multimillionaires for the games they play. You look at the hendrix organization. 85 Car Dealerships and can spend a Million Dollars at options for uctions for a personal cars. Foode have people on the stamps. We need to look at the waste, fraud, and abuse that has gone on in the department of defense. Host Bloomberg News reporting that American Airlines and others are proposing opposing an arizona bill that would target gays. That is from bloomberg business. Other stories on that topic as well. Next from done, north carolina, on independent line. You, cspan. I shouldve called it on the military line. I have a relative that spent 33 , and an the air force uncle who was in the Pacific Theater in journalism. , during worldmber war ii, we had a Manufacturing Base that could support anything that we would try to do to support our interests around the world. We have General Electric and , but we other people need to embrace the World Economy and try to work for peace and keep our military Industrial Complex strong, but there are a lot of ways and inefficiencies, if the military was run like a business and budgets were followed, there are a lot of things we can do. Just god bless america. It is hard to be a peacemaker. A story in the washington out the ugandan president signing and antigay bill into law. The new legislation threatens to usher in an era of harsh treatment and could lead to oppression of gays and lesbians. The administration will conduct an internal review of our relationship with uganda. We will be sure that all dimensions of our engagement uphold our antidiscrimination policies and principles. Caller i am a vietnam veteran. Is, people complain about this. That is baloney