You have military service as as a navy your belt seal. Guest yes. Served with some wonderful people. You have a woman view. Host the real thing, too. Guest yes, for you looking out it is the real thing. Host thank you for being here. Military get to spending but i want to talk about the head line this morning adding 400 troops in syria o support assault an isis stronghold. What do you make of this strategy by the u. S. Adding troops to this region . Preface this by saying International Relations a chess gn affairs is game and by the seconds move you re talking about hundreds of thousands of combinations, by the fourth move it is billions of combinations. Moves, when thing the United States moves in Foreign Policy everybody adjusts changes. Ame if you were to ask this question five years ago it would be now. Erent than i have concerns about more round troops in syria and probably the single most dangerous thing in the world right now are the potential of the reason is d so many actors in the same battle space. Turkey, russia, israel, ir iran, us now. Nd all playing in that battle space. And that is scary because it has point tial of a flash that could create a larger conflict. Over there ave more how do we make sure that we are not accidentally shooting down with the russians and turkey in there and gulf that have folks supporting other units that are there as well. Es so im concerned about not being able to deconflict and at the same time i think the is in our best interests to make sure we have a say in whatever happens in syria whether a military or political solution but im concerned about the flash points. Also want your take on afghanistan as well because new editorial afghanistan now mr. Trumps war is what they write. The afghan state has been losing control of districts to Taliban Forces are being killed at a rate american commanders call unsustainable. Piece is about generals afghanistan. Ore in on thursday the commander said military leaders are drawing up strategy to require more american troops. Unless k times writes the pentagon delivers a strategy hat is is significantly differe different . Guest let phame preface by say and twoyear responsibility of representing a district with more military and anyone in the nation. So if something happens in the are there, ple period and in hall of fame harms way. Im definitely interested in seeing the strategy moving forward. Stated president obama tried roughly the same strategy ou just described and i heard nothing new or seen nothing new about moving forward with the strategy and putting more troops there while it will help with stability about what is the end goal . Moving . E we i havent heard that yet. That is not a critique of this administration. But i want to see secretary process d the thought is before i would say i support more troops over there. Same with syria. I would like to see what the how is, why are they there, long do we anticipate, which of course you cant always anticipate how long they are i think we should have some strategic goal in mind if harms way. Le in unfortunately i was with the receive a n dover to soldier and when we were when march iing its were zinke elf and secretary and the president and when we were marching back everyone was because they are very sad but beautiful at the same time which is really weird but thats what they are. But the president , everyone was uiet afpbtd i heard him behind me say this is really tough to himself. And that is a good thing. Not only does the Seal Community appreciate the fact that he was but it is good he sees the cost early so the decision to fame le in hall of harms way is always hard. Ost you mentioned your district has the most active in your and veterans district. The appropriations bill passed wednesday and we want to show viewers some of the details. Takeaway u think the is of this legislation . Hopefully with this bill that was passed and moving you have regular order. Instead of having continuing resolutions which are horrible military not just military itself but Industrial Base that himself. Predictability and stability and lets use ship building. If you dont have predictability and stability there you worke lly lose skilled workers, Skilled Workforce because they have to go work and feed their families. This bill is, to me, a start of being toward more regular order that allows predictable, stability. A horrible problem in National Defense and national the past six atus to eight years because you have sort ued resolutions and of indiscriminate cuts across the board which hurt Maintenance Training and deployment schedules and the stories are terms of freely in what is wrong with some of the problems we have. Oceana oceana tphraeufl base seventh large eggs air force in the world they have planes grounded not getting and training schedules for pilots to stay up. The military making tough decisions on what they cut. Maintenance for ships for example, prolonging them. That is more expensive and it is easier to keep up than catch up. I think that im happy with this happy that we are moving toward regular order and we have got to get our National Back on apparatus track. Good for all americans. It is a bipartisan thing. We will invite our viewers to call in. Talking about military issues. Steve in charleston, south carolina. Independent. Caller hey, representative taylor it is a pleasure to speak to you. Im deeply committed to our military and health and modernization. D. O. D. 41 years. I work for a Government Contractor now. People in virginia believe in the military. With the home of navy norfolk. I support people up there right now. Pleasure seeing the president speaking from the slip the other day. Ship. Is we son i watch cspan get to watch hearings and press conferences and meetings and without politically biased commentary like on fox msnbc and cnn. Senate armedch the ervices committee question people. A while back ash carter it is scary. Here is why. We have al said listen major forces modernizing and we mud. Stuck in the we cant get the money. We are on the side of the house the spending everything has to go through appropriations. We are under sequestration but he pointed out that iran, russia, north korea and china are moving forward as fast as they can and we arent. Just the other day i heard enator Lindsey Graham question our battle hardened general in afghanistan saying we need troops, we have to win there thing or they are going to end up on our foreign soil. Are we going to get the money to modernize and provide upkeep to or get the money necessary to respond if need be . Thank you for your call and i appreciate your question and what you do. Ing that affects all of us, not just district and folks serving. I think that we will. Think that we are going to be able to lift sequestration. The president agrees that it happen as does many folks in congress. So i think sequestration will be lifted and we will get to regular order. Sortis the energy, that is of im hearing that optimism on capitol hill. Can to o everything i support that. That being said it is important to talk about being responsible taxpayer dollars and im asking there question are you a or military hawk and i think we can thread that needle. When you look at some things for example the army has stated they access of infrastructure over their surge to the tune of almost 500 a year. That is kind of crazy. That is like you have a couple usingses that you are not and most people cant afford that. It makes no sense to do that. To look at things like excess infrastructure and expensivehat are very like the f35, there is a huge ost savings that happened there. Good because if you dont get it under control it is hard to other side. But i will do everything i can to make sure we have regular appropriations that fund the necessary dollars for our National Security apparatus. Auditing the pentagon . Guest i would be for that, absolutely. Think it makes sense to on both sides. We need there for proper maintenance and stability and and deployment for the military. You have to say to the budget yes, lets make sure we know where the money is going excess re tphnot having infrastructure and not spending has made an excellent point. We definitely shouldnt be dont programs that address the threat of today and tomorrow. Ashave to be looking forward well on where we will be so cyber for example there will be cyber ever without again. E have to move and modernizing as is china, russia and other countries. Caller we are covering a hearing marine corps eadiness and modernization House Armed Service the subcommittee is having that way at 9 00 under a. M. Eastern today on cspan 2. Cspan. Org and you can listen on app. Span radio frank from billings, montana. Caller good morning, cspan. I would like to ask the to run a taml tally on what we spent in afghanistan war. Eorge w. Bushs im ashamed to be a republican. But at the same time we keep up and the Defense Budget nothing ever gets done. Forcaller previously worked a defense contractor. They have done very well for themselv themselves. Why dont you give us the lowdown. How much is our investment and ow much is our return on investment other than the women who have given their lives for an ignoble cause. You. K guest well, thank you. Good morning from montana. Got to be recall there. You are up pretty early. I appreciate the question and i would in general because i dont facts in front of me ut i would say in general im not for nation building. Im not for occupation. I think that historically when at it doesnt doesnt you have to have stabilizing forces if you are going to hold any territory even if it is temporary. But im not for doing it we have thingsen to build here in this country infrastructurewise. Facts in have those front of me but i understand his i understand his point. I would say to some of the men and women who have given their i believe, they believe in what they are doing and it was a oble cause and i will tell you from personal experience and i have listened to Amazing Grace bagpipes more than i would wish on anyone the past 15 tell you they l are committed and they believe in what they are doing. Ost when did you begin your military career and why . Guest im from the even shore peninsula rch extra and i delmarva peninsula and small town f that raised by a single mother, no good grades not that didnt care about academics i thought about going to the and read a ially book and watched that charlie of seals and i wanted to do that. School to of high join the seals in 1997. Host in 15 years . Guest just over eight years on years in South Central america and iraq war and injured reconnaissance yemennt back and forth to four years doing Security Consulting and negotiating with tribesmen in the Arabian Desert which is why it is easy negotiate here. Were you on september 11 . September 11 no, i was just getting back. I apologize. Ust getting back from a deployment in south america and at home with my then girlfriend. To look for property and she woke me up when went down and i was up in time to see the second one. In Virginia Beach just got home. Host how did it impact you . Real. It made everything initially when i went into the tour four first 1997 and i in in had every intention of getting out and going to college and to focus on academics. Hen it happened, it changed everything. Honestly, it changed what i viewed that i was doing. Like ok we are going to. Ar and i reenlisted host you did go back to school. Guest i did. The g. I. Bill and went to Harvard University and they had Wonderful Program that enabled my because i couldnt go to oston fulltime but enabled me to go there a lot of the time with a residency requirement and distance which in the Arabian Desert and as long as not cutting my lectricity i completed the undergraduate and masters requirements except thesis and i get that done and i will have a masters in International Relations the same program as bachelors from harvard. Host they keep you busy. Guest a little bit. There call from wisconsin, claire. For cspan andou my k you, representative, big concern is having the and the t from you congress to actually control our. Ederal spending i think we should get a commitment to revisit the let the public understand what that is and we sequester but without a required reduction in the departments but freeze the ederal budget and only allow increased spending for any program whether defense or not growth of the national productivity. Host we will take your idea. Guest good morning, sir. Thank you for your question. Appreciate it. As i said earlier if you ask me defense hawk or budget hawk i would say both. Sequester, itt the as the worst Case Scenario if lawmakers didnt get the deal. That became law which is which reallye cuts hurt things like maintenance and raining schedules and the National Security apparatus has been devastating. And i see it firsthand because where i live. That said, your point is well i think theres a lot of fat in budgets around the whole government and we should belt in many departments. Even canada in the 1990s was to they were able to board andacross their get their budget in line because pretty big as like cuts around 20 for five years or something. We can definitely work on our budget and reduce our debt in to get ord order. Even in the military i think while im not for the sequester or indiscriminate cuts plenty of fat s using the example of the excess nfrastructure 500 million in the army, air force about 25 . So there are significant cuts that can happen even in defense. But they cant be indiscriminate like the et the sequester that i believe hurt or readiness. Go to henders hendersonville, tennessee. Caller thank you for taking my call. Im 100 vietnam veteran. Nt to the va hospital in hospital in he va nashville 20 years. My blue cross es blue shield as my primary care nd only pick up 20 of my Health Care Cost and i still have to wait and beg them for service. I have been struggling with a hip, back pain problems for over and all they do is give you the runaround. Thank you. Well, good morning in tennessee. I love the state of tennessee. Thank you, sir. If you are 100 disabled they deal with your healthcare and not push you on to another plan. Every right especially if you are 100 disabled. I dont know who your congress there but i would advise you to call him and make him put ore horsepower lined that to make lined that. Behind that. Will be more than happy to help. If you will indulge me with the va we have seen a lot of va and s with the problems they have. And now with appropriations we and i have abucket retired master chief seal in my issues working on va specifically to tackle that and you are hearing about people not fired or under performing and those are problems but there wrong with issues the va, structural issues. Or example, va is on the operating system, Computer System is dos. Floppy disks . That is incredible. The va is operating doesnt talk to the d. O. D. Operating system. About that. 100 of the people in the va came from d. O. D. Is incredible they dont talk, their operating systems dont talk. When the gentleman calls when he gets out of the military to disabled rating i has to have a package and make his details and it takes forever it being electronic, boom, as soon as you come out they can talk and that would do things. Help reduce time to get decisions and reduce fraud veterans metimes commit fraud and they would know hat you are being treated for and the injuries. So there are structural issues your call. Ou for host this is a viewer on twitter with a spending question. If he thinksessman it is wise to cut state department and coast guard udget but raise defense spending. Guest thats an excellent question. Lets go with the coast guard first. Problems getting the coast guard cut and i havent seen the president s budget that that. Fically says i have just seen the reporting with the paper. But i have big concerns because coast guard the which i believe is absolutely apparatus, security you look at the coast guard the 1. 5 of nation s times y do four to five the amount of every other agency with counterdrugs so they are for the money and part of the National Security apparatus with rescues folks or is. Ever it i have grave concerns about taking awayudget that much for the coast guard. Lets talk about the state department. Believe there is probably some cuts that could be a pretty big is number out there i have heard nd that concerns me because diplomacy is necessary and obviously with diplomacy you can reduce the need perhaps for fighting. So, i do have concerns with the in the staete department budget, too. Winchester, ext virginia. Independence. Representative taylor, i hope you dont mind if i call you scott. Veteran of vietnam and 30 disabled. Health care through the va. He gentleman that called in 100 he needs to cancel Blue Cross Blue Shield and v. A. Would of it. 100 get medicare and the va bills edicare first and then the va picks up the difference in my care. So i dont pay any outofpocket expenses. Im fortunate. But after you said dos, my is, of all my files on all veteran flop tkwrpy disk, if they are u dos that is a floppy system. Im being sarcastic. Im going to contact your office because i have personal issues ith the va and their Record Keeping and like you said, d. O. D. And va dont communicate with each other. Guest good morning from irginia great state and thank you and contact my office if we can help you we will do it. Director of the hampton va which is the fast eggs growing in the fastest for women and veterans dos. It was like we are on i dont know how else they would tore it but they have floppy disks which is incredible and something we are going it tackle the d. O. D. And va talk. Host we will get one last phone call. In louisiana, republican. Caller good morning. How are you doing . Host go ahead with your question or comment. We have that k tojo in north korea and a lot of things going on. So every move they make you have to be real careful. Guest that is an excellent point, sir. You are right. Thank you for calling in from louisiana which has wonderful food. I was there recently. E have a lot of problems and threats to monitor and deal with, whether South China Sea korea, rising russia, syria. Hemisphere we central mark withnd islamic groups. You are right. A duty and responsibility as the leader of the free world and it is tough threats out there that need to be monitored and we have to be cautious and careful move we make as we talked earlier. International relations very chess game. Host you can find scott taylor. Hou house at taylor taylor. House. Gov. We will take a short break and then we will talk it another representativeer val demings of Florida Former Police chief and talk about Law Enforcement. We will be right back. There weekend on american istory tv on cspan 3 saturday evening 6 00 eastern on the civil war Abraham Lincoln authorities speculate on what been had he not been assassinated. We would have to assume he a very g to follow cautious plan and so he might have ve been willing to black folks implemented for certainly would have been much more conciliatory to the south. The 10 00 on real america 1952 film roundtrip the u. S. A. In world trade. Take stuff from them 10 this yard s from alone going to 25 different countries. Sunday at 6 00 p. M. We will tour philadelphias Carpenter Hall which served as of the First Continental Congress in 1774. Patrick henrymber for his give me liberty or give me death. Even more significant was here in the de earlier days when he looked he saeid room and fromemen, we are no longer massachuset massachusetts. We are no longer from pennsylvania. We no longer are from virginia. Americans. At 8 00 on the presidency Ronald Reagan and transformation of global politics. The Reagan Administration attempted to tackle human the 1981 decision the trade arshal law Union Movement there. For a complete schedule go to cspan. Org. Cspan where history unfolds daily. In 1979 cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Television Companies and s brought to you today by the cable or satellite provider. Washington journal intelligence. Host another new face at our table freshman representative democrat of florida. You were orlandos first female and served in Law Enforcement 25 years. Why did you decide to run for congress . Served in Law Enforcement 27 years and before social worker in my hometown in jacksonville