Defense plan. Less john mccain asked for 640 billion so it is less than that. Host is the money going to weapon systems . Is there a worry that these funds could be applied guest this is just a blueprint and we will find out more details when the full budget comes out later this year. Some of the things the militaries ask for it is to get more ships. Lawmakers are always looking to get more money for more training to boost readiness. Service stories about members having to cannibalize other planes to keep other planes flying. Host we have heard the president talk a lot about what has happened militarily overseas in the past years and expressing his dislike. But at the same time we see boosts to the defense department. Is there a connect the dots between the two . Hest we have to see what does overseas. The white house just got the isis plan as well. That will impact how much they spend. Isnt clear yet how that especially with mick mulvaney, he has been a big critic of that. Host at least a couple of republicans are always the are already expressing the figure guest . Where will this it . The figure. Guest john mccain authority said he cannot support this. I think there are some who think the readiness has gotten to such a bad point that they will support this but it is unlikely to get much traction among immigrants because of the cuts to nondefense. They have called for comparable increases to defense and nondefense if you bust the budget cap. Host our guest is here to talk about the increases. 202 7488001, republicans. 202 7488000, democrats. 202 7488002, independent callers. Increasing the size of the active u. S. Army, increasing the u. S. Navy fleet, providing air force with aircraft and growing the marine corps to 36 battalions. 350 ships why that number in President Trump thinking . Guest we are at the high 2 100ths now. Trump said 350 on the campaign trail and the Navy Released a new fleet plan that says they to the0 five largely due rise of russia and china and other powers that have the conventional navies. The fleet calls for an additional carrier and more submarines and other larger ships. , with the morning department of defense programs, the headline said this could create legal trouble for the pentagon, can you explain that . Guest yes. Sorry. It could cause legal trouble for them, just because he is getting into these contract issues but he doesnt really know, necessarily, the inside outs the way the people who work at that level do. So by jumping all these levels in the chain of command, it could create some issues. The possibility for protests. There was an issue where he allowed going to listen in on a call with the f35 program that Lockheed Martin is doing. So it could open up a protest issue for Lockheed Martin. Host the Washington Examiner website is where you can find our guests writings on the issues of defense. The first call comes from john in arizona on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller yes, thank you for having me. Well, i heard President Trump have a topheavy bureaucracy. And that he will wane the bureaucracy down. Is that he was and that where a lot of the money will come from. And i cant wait until he fires all of them. And uses the money for something else. And that is about all i have to say. Have pointed out that there is a lot of waste at the pentagon. And that something needs to be done about it before they give more money. Trump has said that the savings for this will come from the state department, from cuts to foreign aid and the epa and he is offsetting that with the mystic cuts. Host we have heard for auditing of the pentagon. Will that happen . Guest the pentagon has never had a successful audit, it is so large. But many people think that is what needs to be done. Especially if you boost the money you are giving them. Reginald is up next in texas on the independent line. Go ahead. Said 50you know, dr. T years ago that america was the biggest conveyor of violence in the world. And instead of the money being in the military budget, we should be using it for the poor pull thempaign to help poor. I think that is what we should be doing. The Congressional Black Caucus and my Congress Member voted for on Homeland Security. We need representatives democrat and republicans hold them accountable for this budget. Remember this is black history month. We need to check ourselves and hold ourselves accountable to where that money is going. Take care ofould social security. Because we borrowed a million trillion dollars on social security. Like for us i would to go when we talk about it. Byd each other accountable representatives and ourselves. Host what is the plan for democrats when it comes to this budget, particularly the military aspect . Tost democrats are likely ask for an increase in nondefense spending and their point previously has been that there are agencies separate from the pentagon that have contributed a lot to the defense of the country. Obvious things like cia, department of Homeland Security but nonobvious things to like funding education and nutrition, because you want the military to be able to recruit the best and brightest. So well educated and fit. Beingf recruits overweight they dont have a lot of recruits. So they say that does help the military. Host we have seen the defensive budget be under sequestration. Where is that and how do these future increases go over that . Can you explain where we are in the sequestration process . Tesco these will definitely go over the budget control caps. The last one ran out in fiscal 2017 so sequestration would come back this year if lawmakers cannot reach some sort of deal. They have in the past and i dont think anyone is expecting the pentagon to operate under the levels. But there is no deal yet. Absent that, we would revert back to the lower funding levels. Host from new york, rose lee on the republican line. Caller good morning. I would like to followup on the 38 billion dollars to israel. That will be spent over 10 years and it was approved while obama was still in office. We need to reflect back on president eisenhower. Two things, the militaryIndustrial Complex. The other thing is that ive noticed here in new york state that many of our top officials are making multiple trips back and forth to israel. And i think the one branch here in government that we need to watch out for, and somebody needs to check on their financial conflict of interest, i dont think mr. Trump they are looking into his conflicts. ,he Senate Arms Committee especially the leader, the chairman. Mr. John mccain. Ran for thewhen he president , somebody needs to look on the website of the Aeronautical Companies arms weapons sales. He got major contributions from sales. Rms from those people. Mcdonnell douglas and all the big Aeronautical Companies. Because the more weapons that he can that the Arms Committee can convince the president that they need, the better the sales for the Aeronautical Companies. Host thank you. Trump obviously has been really involved in the defense industry. He has gotten involved directly with the coos of boeing and Lockheed Martin. We have to wait and see how the deals play out. Host as a military contractor looking through these increases, what goes through my mind . Guest the industry is excited. The prospect of a bigger Defense Budget is certainly exciting to ism because the military also aging and they will be looking to buy new things that will need to be built. But it is unclear how quickly the industry will be able to ramp up after a couple of years of not building. Host what is the timeframe . Even if he got the money, how long is it before we see weapons or refurbished weapons come out on the line . Guest it will be years, especially shipyards. It takes a long time to build an aircraft carrier. And the military has gutted their research and development funding. Innovation behind the scenes has not been going on. Host byron in tennessee. Go ahead. Caller i think President Trump is doing the right thing. I think hehink needs to increase the budget for the military. Because we have a lot of enemies. North korea and china, they are building the artificial islands. And in their not doing that just for the good of building an island. If we had to fight world war ii today, i believe we would probably lose because we dont have the Industrial Complex to support that type of initiative. That is all a have to say. Thank you. Guest yes. The statement he put out yesterday, john mccain said the world is on fire. We are facing a lot of stress and the military, as it stands now, is not prepared to handle if there were two simultaneous wars, is not prepared to handle it. So that is why the of ministration is focused on rebuilding the military. Host as far as the military budget at the start of the Obama Administration versus when he came out of office . Guest im not sure on the details of that but in recent years, it has been growing. Host from matthew in vancouver, washington. Go ahead. Caller i had a question for jacqueline klimas. A lot of the election was based on income inequality and corrupt politicians. And i know that a lot of them, and george soros and whatnot sell weapons. And that is one of the main ways that our country has been making money. And im wondering if you know if mr. Trump is going to be careful about his purchasing of military arms, not going to the elites that are trying to break down the economy of our country . Sure about where specifically the money will go. But i think people will really be watching the conflict of interest and making sure they are policed well. Host 202 7488001, republicans. 202 7488000, democrats. 202 7488002, independent callers. Tells about the role that james mattis plays now, as far as the day today and the budget issues . Sent tohe budget was the pentagon and theyre looking at what they would like to send the money on. James mattis was in the field so he has used a lot of the weapons. So it will be interesting to see where he comes down on the programs in growing the military. The pentagon has said he is trying to get rid of on everything before he comes up with a public stance on all of this but given his experience in the military, everyone is expecting him to have a wellthoughtout perspective on this. Host maria, virginia, go ahead. Independent line. Caller hello. That the tell her Washington Examiner was an important morning paper that many of us read on our way to work in d. C. And we miss it when they went digital. That the term is because is a misnomer, from reading various experts and these think tanks, it appears that actually the obama go onstration let things fleets. An increasepair and in the number of ships and other weapons systems. Because they dont last terribly long. That was my comment. And is the Washington Examiner purely digital now . Or has it reverted to paper form . Guest we actually do still have a weekly magazine, as well. Platformsour comment, are aging. And it is important to recapitalize them. We have airplanes that fathers and sons are flying. They are lasting far longer than they should and the military is saying they are flying the wings off the platform. Which is why recapitalization is so important. Ast what does this do for far as pay benefits . Does it address those issues . Spending, itory dont believe that is addressed in that. This is on the discretionary side and we will go towards things like training and building up activeduty forces. Buying new platforms, those kinds of things. Host our guess is with us to talk about the Defense Budget. Who coversklimas defense spending for Washington Examiner. You can see the writing there on the digital side of the platform. From north carolina, sarah, high. Caller good morning. I call myself a moderate i am at because nurse. I work with all populations. And i would like people out here to know that if you are trying to dismantle the Affordable Care act, there is an epidemic of heroin use and heroin death. Are upot of these people to 26 years of age. So these people that are trying to get congress to tear it down, please remember that your kids stay on your excuse me your kids can stay on your policy until they are 26 years old. So if you wipe it out, you will have to pay outofpocket for s rehab. D host lets go to james in florida on the independent line. Caller yes, thank you for taking my call. I was wondering if the guest of how much the United States spends on its military versus the rest of the world . The largest countries . My understanding is that we spend more than the next 13 countries combined. Can anyone how justify giving the military more money when they cant even pass an audit . Number three, will this be passed under a continuing resolution . Or will they be passed or will this be passed under a budget . How can we even think about this . Thank you. Guest the goal would be to pass this under the normal appropriations process. But people have speculated that because of democratic resistance and republican resistance to the budget blueprint couldnt actually pass as appropriations bills. As a result, it increases uncertainty and the likelihood that the country could start fiscal 2018 on a continuing resolution. Host so could republicans possibly increase that and is that the increase is that the interest . Guest it is possible they could increase that but it is unlikely they would get any democratic support. That wouldll actually pass congress, there would have to be some sort of compromise. An increase in defense and nondefense. It would have to be an offset to get the support. Questionfar as the about the spending for the United States and the comparison to the other countries, the wall street journal provided this chart this morning taking a look at 2015 dollars. This is the United States, and more thanring it countries combined, china, saudi arabia, russia, france and others. Lets go to ray in new mexico on the independent line. Caller how are you doing . I will get to my point. With the carrier battle groups and stuff, the navy and the ships, i came in during the reagan era and we are maintaining nine carrier battle groups. That is way more than any country even has. Who is coming up with these numbers on how many ships we need . And im sure we have enough nukes to do something if we needed to. I will leave it at that. Came the 355 ship plan from the navy. That was during a review of what they have and what they need. Russia and china both have significant size maybes. 350 five ship number calls to compete with that if we were to need that. Host as far as the nuclear program, does it spending address that . Guest i dont think there are specific out yet. This is something trump will have to make a decision on. It is reaching a point where it either will need to be recapitalize or not so there will be decisions that need to be made there. Michael in georgia. Go ahead. You are on. Caller good morning. With all that is going on now, i thought we could do a bit of a history lesson. President reagan increased the spending and materials for the military. I am 20 years United States navy. As soon as clinton got in, he decimated the military. He cut the ships in have. Not just reducing it by 10 or 20 but he cut it in half. The democrats have no idea what to do with the military. They are terrified of the military. Because they know that we dont put up with a whole lot of gu that democrats are trying to shove down peoples throats. In, betweent , they builtobama the military back up again but then obama got in and it was another eight years of destroying the military. You cant just tear something to pieces and letting go to pieces and then say oh, ok, lets fight in seven or eight wars. Be have to constantly prepared. It is like driving your car for 10 years and never changing the oil. And that is what the democrats seem to think we can do with the military. You bought a gun . It should be good for ever, it . That isnt the way it works. Guest it is important to know that on capitol hill, the desire to rebuild the military is bipartisan. Democrats just want to ensure that domestic programs are also taken care of. But no one on these committees is saying that the military has enough money and enough capability and is good to go. Everyone is calling for an increase in the defense department. Host so the budget request for 2017, there is the oversee 59tingency operation of billion dollars. Remind our viewers of what that is about . Guest that is supposed to go to funding operations overseas. There was a big increase in the school 2017. They asked for the reassurance initiative. But it has become a flush fund, that is the criticism of it. Because it is not subject to the sequestration cap. So you can leave that at the level set but get around that by dumping action money into the oco account. Which gives money to extra programs. Addressedtrump ever doing something directly with this budget . Guest he has not. Has been one of the most vocal critics in washington, saying this is a flush fund and it needs to be done away with. The money isnt an option. It would require moving the money which will require busting a cap which would require a budget deal. Host why does it remain separate . Behind it isea that when there is an operation overseas, the money should be able to move for freely move more freely. And not be subject to a cap. If there is danger, they need that money right away without a political battle. Host from florida on the democrats line, girl, you are next. Line, earl, you are next. Lets go to emmett in louisiana. Caller thank you for taking my call. I cant understand why the media is making such a big deal out of billion. On 54 why is that so controversial . Why is the media trying to make something out of that . And why is the media always trying to find problems with the Trump Administration instead of trying to look at the good things that he is trying to do for the country . It really seems bad that the media is gaining up on trump on every issue. Everything. Even congress and democrats. Ev