Committee meets to receive the testimony of the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chief of staffs on the administrations fiscal year 2018 budget request. We welcome secretary mattis for the first time before our committee and we welcome chairman dunford back. The question today, as it is each year for this hearing, is how well the administrations proposal meets the security needs of the nation. Factoring in both the external threats and the current state of our military. This committee has repeatedly heard testimony over the past two years that our country faces more serious complex security challenges now than we have faced before. The hearings and briefings we have held on the current state of our military have been disturbing. The administrations budget request of 603 billion for base requirements is 6 above the 17 enacted level and 3 above the last Obama Administration Budget Proposal. Its 37 billion below what this committee assessed last fall was needed and 58 bi
Because its the right thing to do but i cant. And i said i wouldve voted against it because it would help me politically but i cant. But everyone knew it was going to be listed. All of the rhetoric would take place, the accusations. But eventually we would vote to raise the debt ceiling as we always did. And it was amazing to me that eventually became such a critical issue that it could have resulted as the country going into default, an issue that the Previous Congress had been debated and people express themselves and they knew what they needed to do at the end and we are in a different kind of environment now. Speaking to the governor earlier about the Business Community and how they are looking for certainty and stability and how that is one of the reasons and they will send an extension with some conditions. The president has never had anything. That would do him some good. In effect when the congress doesnt pass that much to begin with at this point. Yes and the president indicat
The current epidemic, which africa struggles with, is something that we should have thought about. They do not have a healthcare structure that can deal with the regular issues that good on over there from a healthcare perspective. Now were adding to this injury by ebola, or nature is adding to the countrys with ebola outbreak. The first focus needs to be on relative simple things to decrease mortality in west africa. Intravenous hydration, managing nausea, fever, and superimposed bacterial infections will relatively inexpensive measures that can be part of a package that can be delivered do west africa. Theres critical need of beds in the most affected countries. Proper training and protective gear needs to be provided to the hospital staff, and the staff dealing with the corpses. Their complex ethical challenges which abound and are related to the use of untested interventions, quarantine, special care and other issues. The u. S. , u institutes of health played a critical roll in imp
Wouldnt suffer the system as much as they do so there is a resistance from people on the left and progressive often making its progressive because it progressive because they worry that it would undermine support. Is that a fair representation tracks it undermines the support but i think that on the question of the progressivity i guess that you could look at and i agree with your point that it makes sense for the system to be progressive and it also makes sense that not everybody will get back what they put in or more but if we want the progressivity that in a clear way one could look on the revenue side and let everybody pay all year long and in terms of solvency that does a whole lot more trying to track down a few millionaires to make sure they dont get their Social Security benefits so just as the progressivity you get much more bang for the buck than on the benefit side. That makes one of my plants which is one of the interesting things if your objective is to make it more progre
Or cspan. Next, medical and military experts discuss Current Health and Security Issues from around the world. Topics include the sprefd ebola, ferksicts of biological and Chemical Warfare and humanitarian and refugee crises. This is hosted by the Interuniversity Center for terrorism studies. Its just under two hours. Okay. I guess were ready to start. I want to welcome everyone again to a very timely seminar. I want to thank all of the people who put this together with a great deal of haste really, considering the topic. The Health Challenges we have. The security responses from ebola to terrorism. Of course, i think its extraordinarily timely event. We have a super panel here. Im going to let yonah do the introductions at the right time. Our panel were blessed really by having a panel that has a lot of military experience, a lot of government experience, medical experience, a lot of all kinds of experience, if you will, that you need to talk about this topic, along with don and his I