Wednesday. It says the amendment will help the country deter war. Pyeongyang had previously declared itself a Nuclear Power in 2012. In a speech leader kim jongun said the countrys Nuclear Force is now a permanent strategic asset. This comes after a new law last september legalizing a potential Preemptive Nuclear strike. Meanwhile north korea also upgraded its Aerospace Agency into a bureau. It played a key role in recent Ballistic Missile launches. It was also behind two failed attempts to launch a spy satellite. North korea made it clear it wants to pursue Space Development in a recent visit to russia. Pyeongyang is expected to make a third attempt to deploy the satellite in the coming weeks. South Koreas Yonhap news essentially says the upgrade shows north korea is committed to future launches. Taiwan has launched its first domestically developed submarine, a major step that it hopes will enhance deterrence against the chinese military. The vessel was unveiled at a launch ceremony i
That said we really want to take a chunk of the i]budget, go over it and see whether we could do ataq things more effectively whether we could do emphasize some priorities better. I dont think you could do the owhole budget. You certainly couldnt do it every other year. ut you could set up a mechanism the budget say every three years or five years to see if the money could be spent better and the priorities were what congress reallyco wanted them to be. Bob . Can i just ask you a quick question . So is what alice describes on the domestic side, is the military really any different . Isnt there a certain amount of the air force, the navy, the marines, everybody has to get their share of the cuts . Broadly, the budget shares havent changed a lot. Thats a fair statement. Within those shares theyve changed a lot. Let me try to respond. First off i think its way too harsh that suggest that ovq all only 1 of Government Spending has any effect. I will offer just a couple examples. One obvious
You just wrote a book that says a lot of what the government does may not do any good and we spend i omitted the word may. Isnt there some point of having a Budget Constraint here which says to the congress, ok look, live within these things and lets spend more on the stuff that works and doesnt. Thats kind of the idea. Right. A, sent that a good idea . And b, why doesnt that ever happen . Why doesnt it ever happen . Why dont they set priorities and spend more on what they should and less on what they shouldnt . I think its just too hard. The government is gargantuan. Theres a book of Government Programs, if you dropped it on your toe, would you have to immediately go to the hospital. Thousands of pages. The government is just huge. How can you we cant even control the department of defense. We were in a meeting a couple months ago that had an important senior official and department of defense said they dont even know what the budget is. Is that correct . No, thats not right. Im talki
Administration, the president and the congress. So we do a number of things and i think its unfortunate that we suggest otherwise. In terms of accountabilrty, we absolutely know where were spending the money, down to a great deal of detail. You may not like the results that you see. Thats a fair point. And there are priorities set. I mean, i will give you a current example. We have backed much on Ground Forces over the last few years than we have any others. That was a painful decision, i can assure you, within the department of defense, but it was one consciously made based on a strategy that we felt in the aftermath of iraq and afghanistan we could afford smaller Ground Forces and still cutting but not as much the naval and air force. So i think alice is right, we can do better, but it is not as if we are just taking this money and sort of randomly spending it wherever we want and its not the case that theres no effect. Its easy if you mischaracterize someone. Thats not what im sayin
Simple world to American Foreign policy since americas preeminence after the Second World War and based on a very simple binary. Who can we bomb . Who can retake out to lunch . So china is a unique country because they went from being a country that belonged on the two bomb list to take out to lunch list. And it has become a lunch so therefore it has become far more interesting. Before we get started with michaels comment and i am questionandanswer with him and then open it to questions and answers from all of you we have a message of some congressmen randy foltz, chairman of the china caucus in the house of representatives dared he could not join us in person, but his message to life in his comments will be read out by my colleague, carolyn stewart. As secretary of the hudson and two. [inaudible] its a pleasure to have an opportunity to share brief thought on the hundredyear marathon and the contributions of dr. Michael pillsbury to the internment is the important debate about the fut