Transcripts For CSPAN Newsmakers Sen. Inhofe 20180128 : vima

Guest we heard earlier today from senator cornyn that we should expect at least two more crs. There was some optimism coming out of the last cr vote that ultimately will see an increase on defense spending that budget caps would be lifted. What message douf for leadership as far as breaking the impass and getting to a larger deal to fund the federal overnment . What we have to do, it was understood we were going to have appropriation bills. We have 12 appropriation bills and we have frankly theres a partisan element to this because we have tried to pass them out and we cant get them on the floor. As you know a minority can block them from coming up on the floor. The one that has to pass is the one for our National Defense. We have to get past the budget caps. Give an example. If we dont do anything as it is right now when we pass the authorization bill for the military its at 700 billion. If for some reason we cant get beyond the caps and we have to go to a strict cr thats going to go down to 549 billion and that would absolutely be devastating. We have to repair our military d we cant do it unless we either pass an appropriation bill or we raise the caps. Mattis se secretary jim has mattis has linked the problems to military readiness problems. Youre the chairman of the ske. Ness subcommittee. Where are we now in terms of readiness crisis and the does Congress Share any part of the lame for getting us here given that that did they prioritize readiness enough . I would say congress does in one respect. During the Obama Administration and i hate to be blaintly blunt but we really suffered in our military. And i dont say this really critically of obama because he is a very proud liberal and proud liberals dont care that much about military. So he had a policy that we couldnt do up up ground brigadse for example only a third of them are ready to be activated. We are missing 1500 pilots right now, 1300 of those are actually combat pilots. We have and our f18s the marines use a third of those just really or less than half are working right now. So we can cover those things up, use other vehicles. And we can win. But were going to take a lot of sacrifices winning. I think its very important people know its very important for our officers to let the people in america know that we have a real serious problem because without that without their awareness were not going to get the attention of the house members and Senate Members that will have to make the decision on ultimately a budget for the military or a fix of the dilemma we have right now. It looks like the house is going to take action on some of these issues. Kevin mccarthy said earlier in the week that they will vote on the same defense spending bill that passed in july stripping it out of the omnibus package and voting just on the bill. Also, the Freedom Caucus spokesman said they will also vote to lift the budget caps. So im wondering, weve talked about this already but do you envision a day when the senate will vote to raise caps . And what do you make on voting on a bill that has already passed the house. I would say this. I applaud the house for doing this. Weve got to have the budget caps raised for the military. And taking that action is going to in my opinion make it easier in the senate because we have a lot of people that i think all of your republicans, most all the republicans would support that. A few of the democrats that are a little bit more hawkish would. I think its a great start. I applaud kevin for doing that and for putting us in that position because thats got to be done. A lot of things have to be done to fix the dilemma that we have. One is we have to have the appropriation bills and the other is we have to raise the caps and the other is we have to be in a position where our senior uniformed personnel are talking about the problem. Because i dont have the credibility. When i talk to the people and i tell them about the risks that were facing which i think is the greatest risk in the history of the country, i dont have the credibility but they do in uniform. Just to clarify what i just now said. The risk there is very real. And when i say its the greatest risk that weve faced before, i have said this many times before. I look back wistfully of the days of the cold war when we had two super powers we knew what they had they knew what we had. It doesnt mean any more. And we have countries like north korea. 28 fired a on nober rocket that has the range to reach right here where were sitting any place in the continental United States. Thats something that were working on right now. We are trying to get our ground base interceptors where they should be. But thats the threat that were facing right now. So the action that the house is talking about doing i want to make sure they do it because that will make our job in the senate a lot easier. I promise you, the president would sign it. Ive talked to him about that. I know that another big topic of discussion at least from the National Defense strategy, which was unveiled around this past fri, the unclassified portion at least. You mentioned that this is the seen. St threat youve the United States greatest threat will come from russia and china. Im wondering if you have seen across the version of that report and what you think of it. Theres things i cant talk about right now but youre talking about the twothree see. The strategy. I agree in terms of the greatest threat conventionly would be russia or china and china, i would say, that the other three are important, too. North korea, iran, and isis. So thats the strategy that he is putting down as a priority to get to. So you really have two different types of strategies. The one that is that i mentioned with north korea, thats the one that every person who comes to our meetings comes to our hearings that are public televised hearings, they come up were talking the military now. They say we have the greatest threat that weve ever faced because in the case of north korea the guy kim jung you unpredictable. And they always use that word unpredictable. Thats scary when you have a weapon delivery system. Let me hasten to say because i know the critics are watching, that yes, they have something that i think can range continental United States. They will say well we dont know on november 28 when they demonstrated they had that range what kind of a pay load they had or if they had any payload at all. Because yes if theres increase you cant use the actual pounds but if it would increase by the amount of a weapon then maybe they couldnt have made that kind of a range. D the other thing is the reentry. When you are in a trajectory and you come back in its difficult to come in with any accuracy at all. That doesnt give me any comfort. If they have something come over to the United States of america that could wipe out a city, you know, i cant think of any place i want it to land, i see that as a fact. And i know there are a lot of people who dont want to believe that that threat is imminent and is out there. To your point about the threat from north korea. The National Defense strategy prioritizes Missile Defense. Investments itizes in nuclear weapons, nuclear also s modernization, and cyber. But strategy is about choices. Are there parts of the Defense Budget where you see opportunities for to disinvest . What can we give up . Part of the strategy that general mattis came out with talks about some areas where our leetsdzality is not as great as some of our enemies. Thats what happened primarily during the Obama Administration. Art tillry is a good example. Were actually behind both russia and china in our artillery capabilities. A lot of our allies, too, germany, for example, theyre ahead of us. So part of that strategy that he outlined talked about get sog that were at least equal or better in all of these areas. Cyber is another thing. Not many people out there who are watching this now are aware of the capability of what someone could do with a cyber attack on america. And thats something that is kind of new and not many people are familiar with it. But they could put us out of business and we cant afford to do that. And the other areas are acquisition. The ked about and chairman of this Senate Armed Service Committee John mccain has always been a tiger on doing something about acquisition. He reminds us all the time that we have gone through our ground capabilities. Remember, the system that we were first going to use. It was a crusader system. We spent 2 billion on that then junked the system went to the future combat system, then we went through the acquisition, got halfway there, spent 20 billion o and then we junked that system because the acquisition wasnt going right. I would say the same thing with some of the helicopters and others. So thats one area that has got o be, even though it doesnt have the immediate effect of trying to stop something catastrophic from hitting us today we have to look to the future. I would say maintenance is the other thing that we talked about in strategy something that people are not that familiar with that if we have a serious maintenance problem as we have right now trying to maintain a lot of the vehicles, thats a maintenance problem. So the strategy is right. In order to do that were going to have to accomplish what we started out with, and that is doing something about lifting the caps, something about getting an appropriation bill. People dont understand what if you just do a cr, thats a continuing resolution, that means you take whats been given to us by obama and you have just got to bring it forward and do the same thing. We dont want to do the same thing. We want to rebuild. We want to be superior. Right now we are reasserting americas leadership in the world and we want to be able to afford that. The pentagon under President Trump and also under president obama have both asked for rack rounds, base rea eye linement and closure rounds. Thats something youve been consistently opposed to. But is there any way in which you would agree to Something Like that as a means of allowing the pentagon some head space to free up funding for other priorities . Let me just explain. Because and i know this is one of the few areas where a lot of the republicans disagree. But when they came out there are two things that happen if you do a brac round. A brac round is a base realignment and closure commission. Thats what it stands for. So they go through and make analyses of mostly the domestic, also the foreign but installations that we have. The reason im opposed to it now is that one thing is certain with every brac round and ive been involved in every brac round since 1987 that was the first we went through. One thing thats certainty is the first three or four years it costs huge amounts of money. And right now we cant afford huge amounts of money. We have to take care of these maintenance problems that we have and the readiness problems that we have first. So that would be regardless of any other issues. Thats the reason i would oppose it now. Doesnt mean i would oppose it in the future necessarily. The other reason right now is that we are in a rebuilding mode. Weve got to be right now. And when you start rebuilding, and lets say you go out and close some of the installations someplace in america because theyre not being used right now, well, you dont know when we get into the rebuilding mode maybe thats just installation, that were going to have to have. For those two reasons. I have to say though a lot of my colleagues do not oppose it. On the topic of rebuilding americas military i understand that yesterday the senate was briefed on the Nuclear Posture that will be released in february. Sneak peak when bits of it were leaked in the press. So the Congressional Budget Office has said its going to take up to 1. 2 trillion to capitalize the nuclear triad. So adam smith, the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee Said you can have it for far less than that over that span of time. What do you say about the huge price tag . Adam smith gooed guy and all that but h good guy and all that. Priorities. Ferent keep in mind they all supported president obamas priority on you cant put more money into the military unless you put an equal amount into nondefense or social programs. So i think in terms of the triad and i can say that, this was a closed meeting but i know whats been in the press since then so i can talk about that. Weve got a problem with our nuclear arsenal. Ever since the cold war we havent done anything to modernize it. Were just like we were back then. At the same time, were doing nothing both china and russia are really getting in there and working hard to make sure that they get ahead of us in this area. And frankly, they are. So its time that we get busy. And thats what the the meeting is all about. Again this is not confidential. When they come out with their final report this has already been in the media they are going to be in a position to start working on it. Now, the triad theres three elements o of a triad as a nuclear deterrent. You have your submarines, air, ground. But were already working in some of those areas. For example, in the i was complimenting john mccain on his leadership and our ndaa bill. And one of the things that we did there was make sure we increase our Missile Defense system, make sure that we are paying attention to some of the old parts of the triad. For example, were still using b52s. Until we have a b21 that will be coming along, thats probably going to be another eight years before that gets there. So we are in the process of right now were still using the ohio class submarines. Were going to be getting into new class but not until probably six years from now. But weve got to get that to be up to be competing with both russia and china. We have a little more than five minutes left. So one thing that to be w heard in recent weeks, secretary of state tillerson signaled some support for an indefinite u. S. Troop presence to deal with the aftermath of the islamic state. What do you see as the mission there and does this administration have to explain to the American People and congress what troops would be doing there after this . You know what i would rather do . I will rather hear that and where mattis is coming down. I think the world of our secretary of state. Youre getting into something that really technical military issues. And its going to take some presence, obviously. We know that. Theres no question in anyones mind. As to the level of american presence, and weve had some great successes there. But we still you cant get up and walk away. And by the way, one of the bad things that came out of the Obama Administration, they came out and made statements as to what they were going to do, when were going to withdraw the troops, what our troop level is going to be on a certain date. To hats the worgs thing, let the American People know but the enemies know also. So i think hes probably right but as to the numbers im going to wait and see what general matice what secretary let the American People know but the enemies mattis comes up with. Does the pentagon need to send a someone to the hill to present in an open hearing . It can be in a open hearing, a closed hearing. Most of your oach hearings end up in a closed hearing if there are things they cant respond. So i would say its going to be both and they will be up. Im going to be not allowed to say where, but a lot of these zones that were talking about, with Seven Members of the senate and one from the house. Period of time. To make our own determination. A lot of times you have to go there to really find out. To the troops period of time. On the ground. You have to talk to the commanders on the ground. And you can always get a little more accurate story there than having an open hearing here in washington, d. C. So let me come back with that knowledge. That sort of raises the question about leadership for the Senate Armed Services committee. As everyone knows, the chairman senator john mccain is battling brain cancer. How often are you talking to him and are you steering the ship in his absence . Im the next in line so the answer is yes im chairing the meetings but were chairing the with gs in consistent what scraun fields we should be doing what john fields we should be doing. Deciding on what hearings were having, thats a decision thats coming out of the chairman who is john mccain. During his Recovery Period he cant be here for these and you cant stop everything now. So ill give you two answers from that. Hes calling the shots and im showing up. I guess the last question we have that we both prepared is that in october there was a political poll that came out that said that 55 of registered Supporters Trust democrats in congress more than President Trump to handle National Security issues. Wondering, its an Election Year. Do you think that republicans have become vulnerable on National Security issues and do you think thats going to be an issue . I cant believe i would sure like to see how that question is posed. Because the one thing no one questions that people when you had president obama with his policy that you couldnt put money in the defense unless you put it in the nondefense, that should tell the American People out there who is the strongest on National Defense. Now, the vast majority or a small majority i guess of people who think that somehow democrats are more in line for defending america than republicans, then weve done not a very good job of communicating. It doesnt mean we change our behavior. We still have a country to protect. Ive got 20 kids