Whole of next year during which you can reach resolution to that issue. Now, the only reason why i think thats an extraordinarily bad idea is i think it would be viewed quite unfavorably by the Financial Markets. And so you could see a reaction. And it is really bad tax policy to be legislating in the middle of the tax year on the basic structure of the income tax for that year. Host well go to jeff in tampa, florida, independent caller. Caller good morning, how you doing . Host good morning, sir. Caller yes, i have a question for mr. Buckley, and this is more it may be a little generic, but something that a couple of my friends and i have talked about and just trying a basic understanding of. Instead of having an income tax, has there ever been any discussion about having a national or a federal sales tax to help offset so this way everyone from the rich to the poor, everyone pays the same amount . I mean, im not sure the exact amount that you would have to pay, im not an economists, but its just something weve always thought about, and i was just curious what mr. Buckley thought. Guest well, there were proposals in the middle 90 from thenrepublican ways and Means Committee chairman bill archer to totally repeal the income tax and replace it with a National Sales tax. They never went anywhere for a variety of reasons, the first is the rate of the tax would have to be extraordinarily high. Well above 20 , in the mid to upper 20s, the replacement tax rate on a consumption tax basis would have to be the rate would have to be that high. Also theyre extraordinarily regressive taxes. Individual at the poverty line would be paying a 25 rate on his or her consumption just as would somebody making a Million Dollars a year. So it would be, it would involve an extraordinarily regressive shift of tax burden. I also think we are an economy that is driven by consumer demand. I cannot think of anything that would be more guaranteed to put the economy in a recession than increasing the price of all goods and services that we purchase by 2025 . Host well give brad on twitter the last word here. He says negotiate and simplify, let the republicans lower taxes and get rid of the amt. John buckley, thank you for your help this morning in helping us try to understand the alternative minimum tax, appreciate it. Guest okay, good. In a few moments, a discussion of house spending cuts in the socalled fiscal cliff. In a little less than an hour, more about the fiscal cliff with republican representative tom cole from oklahoma. Then the head of fema testifies on capitol hill about the governments response to Hurricane Sandy. And later, Senate Debate on the u. N. Treaty for the disabled. This weekend on cspan3s American History tv, follow harry truman easeleddest grandson to hiroshima as the city prepared to mark the bombing of the city in 1945. You know, everybody has their own view what happened, and i, i dont, i dont want to argue survival with anyone in japan about the history. I think were past that. My whole purpose for being here is to listen, to honor the dead, to listen to the living and to see to do what i can to see this doesnt happen again. Clifton Truman Daniel will join us sunday at 9 p. M. Eastern on cspan3. Now, a discussion of how the military and National Security might be affected by spending cuts scheduled to take effect the first of the year. Part of the socalled fiscal cliff. Former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, admiral mike mullen, was joined by the chairmen of the Senate House Armed Services committee. This is a little less than an hour. Good afternoon. Thank you for coming. My name is. Peter rerson peterson. I want to give you, first, a review of our foundation and why we are supporting the project youre going to hear about today. Starting about 30 years ago after studying the profound demographic trends and the vast and unfunded promises that we had made, i decided that our projected longterm and i emphasize longterm debts were not only unsustainable, but a primary threat to our future. Speaking of unsustainable, in the Nixon White House in which i served, herb stein was chairman of the council of economic advisers, and he used to say if somethings unsustainable, he said it tends to stop. Or he said if you dont like that, if your horse dies, i suggest you dismount. Well, i think weve been behaving as though we can ride this debt horse more or less indefinitely. In lieu of a quiet retirement and as a confirmed masochist, i decided to set up a nonpartisan foundation whose Principal Mission would be to increase awareness of the longterm debts and various solutions and try to get something done. Never in my experience have our fiscal security, our Economic Security and our National Security been more closely linked. Indeed, in the words of admiral mullen, the single greatest threat to our National Security is our debt. We are endlessly reminded that everything must be on the table, including defense, which accounts for about 20 as you probably know of the budget. But defense doesnt really seem to be on the table in terms of widelydiscussed solutions or strategies. Instead, we confront sequestration, a thoroughly bad idea for getting a Defense Budget or any other budget. Unless we take action, we could face a fiscal or economic crisis that forces cuts to our military priorities, steep and arbitrary cuts that are neither coherent, nor prioritized. The question is, can we and how do we achieve savings that can improve our fiscal outlook while meeting our National Security needs . To quote admiral mullen again, he said the pentagon budget was basically doubled in the last decade, and in doubling we have lost the ability to prioritize. To make hard decisions, to do tough analyses, to make trades. We also need a review of our Defense Strategy that makes sure that we are preparing for the threats and risks of the 21st century, not those of the past. The foundation has funded two efforts along these lines to help advance the best ideas for improving our Defense Strategy. Earlier this year we funded a project by the Stimson Center which brought together 15 defense experts to examine our strategic defense priorities in some detail and how they should be reformed. Today we announce the new coalition for fiscal and National Security. The coalition, chaired by admiral mullen, includes senior National Security defense and economic officials from both republican and democratic administrations stretching back to more than 30 years as well as leaders from the congress including some very distinguished gentlemen here today. All have served our nation with distinction, and they are joining together now to say very clearly that our leaders Must Find Solutions to our longterm fiscal challenges, because our nations security depends on it. Its now my pleasure to introduce the chairman of the coalition, admiral mike mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, capped a very distinguished 43year career in the United StatesNavy Including service as chief of naval operations. Wile serving in the while serving in the navy, he also managed to obtain advanced Management Training at the Harvard Business school. Few have the combination of practical military experience and sharp budgeting and management knowledge that admiral mullen possesses. Respect for mike mullen is a major reason so many distinguished individuals chose to join this coalition, and its now my pleasure to add to introduce admiral mike mullen. Here he is. [applause] thanks, pete. And thanks for your leadership on this project which, as you said, goes back decades. And i really do appreciate all of you coming here today at what is a truly critical juncture for our nation in terms of our National Security. Our economic viability and our continuing leadership role overseas. It was in response to a reporters routine question more than two years ago he first raised these concerns. He asked me whats the greatest threat to the United StatesNational Security. As chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, i got asked that all the time. I answered in two words our debt. I think i surprised him. Today 15 former senior National Security officials who served across eight president ial administrations have formed a coalition to stress the need for elected officials to act. For not only has the passage of time exacerbated some of the economic problems, it has revealed a perhaps equallydangerous political one. Our inability to grapple with pressing fiscal challenges represents nothing less than a crisis in our democratic order. Compounding the instability and unpredictability in a volatile world. Our propositions for this coalition are simple. The National Security of the United States depends on its economic health. That health must be insured by averting the immediate crises and by laying the groundwork for a rigorous, longterm program of debt reduction, smart investment, Economic Growth and lower income inequality. In National Security spending, we can target investments much more efficiently in response to threats that are evolving before our eyes. And resources need to be shifted toward nonmilitary elements of our National Security posture. In the immediate term and by that i mean over the next four weeks we must avoid driving our country over the fiscal cliff. No partisan ideology is worth the cost to our nation. But just averting the disaster and kicking the can on the tough, structural decisions needed to place our economy on a sound footing for the future is not enough. We are calling for a framework built out over the next ten years to reduce the deficit and restructure fiscal policy. So as eventually to bring the budget into balance. This framework must include tax reforms to raise more revenue, encourage growth and enhance progressivity. It must include parameters defining future levels of debt as a share of the gdp. And a date by which the budget will balance. And it must include changes to Discretionary Spending, entitlements as well as defense. Our elected leaders should launch an expedited process to enact legislation that will construct this framework many 2013 in 2013, including powerful but appropriate default and enforcement mechanisms. Without a recalibrated, sustainable fiscal policy, the United StatesInternational Standing will decline, and its National Security will be undermined. Such an outcome would be bad for the United States and, in our view, bad for the world. As pete said, he and i are joined here today with three, by three distinguished individuals. Er is slams of america for servants of america for decades who made a difference, who had to come up with tough solutions to very complex problems. And its been a real privilege for me to be with them in approaching what this coalition and those who arent here today has brought together to try to inject some energy at the right place at the right time. So next up here will be senator sam nunn, longstanding chairman in senate armed services, who understands our country and our National Security as well or better than anyone i have ever worked with. Senator none senator nunn . [applause] well, first, thanks to Pete Peterson for getting this group together and for so much else that pete and michael and the Peterson Foundation have done in terms of bringing attention to the fiscal challenge we face and mobilizing support for a rational and sane fiscal policy. Second, admiral mullen, thank you for your tremendous leadership both in the military and as a citizen in the recent months. You have led the way, and your statement that basically the biggest risk that we have to National Security is our debt and our unsustainable fiscal policy is one that i totally endorse and agree with, and i commend you for making it, because your impact is very powerful. So thats my, really my first point. My second point is that even if we avoid the shortterm debt crisis, the socalled cliff and i hope that we will the interest on debt in the years to come will increasingly dominate the budget and pressure defense in a very serious way. So without addressing a longterm, tenyear solution as admiral mullen outlined, the Defense Budget is going to be under increasing pressure. That is inevitable and, of course; the Interest Rates have not even started going up, which is also inevitable at some point. Third point i want to make is that the problems within the internal Defense Budget and the dynamics of the internal Defense Budget also make the problem more difficult and more complicated. And also require a longer term to address some of these costs. First of all, the Rising Health care costs, second, retirement costs and, third, procurement and efficiency. Each of those has its own individual complexities, but all are enormously important so the budget within defense is going to have to be addressed even if the top line is one that is a rational top line. In other words, we have entitlements within the Defense Budget now which are comparable to the entitlements that all of us know that weve got to deal with outside the Defense Budget. My fourth point is that the debt and the fiscal picture make diplomacy and development in very poor countries of the world as well as what bill perry has for years called preventive defense, makes all of those more difficult and less feasible and thereby increases americas risk and increases global instability. Because we are not in a position to do things that we otherwise would be in a position to do in terms of shaping the environment to prevent war. So in my view, americas fiscal picture increases the risk of conflict around the globe. Maybe not always involving the u. S. , but certainly the risks are increasing globally based on our fiscal picture. The fifth point i would want to make is that the budget deal requires us to deal with a full deck of cards. And those people who keep wanting to take things off the table, in my view, are not being rational in terms of addition and subtraction. And when i say a full deck of cards, that includes defense participating in deficit reduction. This cannot be in the case of defense a sledgehammer approach. Its going to take a long runway dealing with these issues over time to give the defense department, and they can make, in my view, very significant changes in the budget, but do it in a way that does not damage our security. Doing it abruptly as the fiscal cliff does or in a very compressed time frame is not only inefficient, i think it endangers our security and our risk. My final point is that the missing element in this town is primarily political will, and i say that in regard to both political parties. And the solution, the solution that has to be forthcoming in the weeks ahead and the months ahead require our leaders will require our leaders to, first of all, put our nation first. That has got to be the primary focus of our political leadership, to put the interest of our country first. So thank you, pete, for your leadership. Thank you, admiral mullen. And its always a great pleasure for me to be here with john warner and ike skelton, two individuals i have enormous respect for. And im not sure my role is to introduce either one of them, but, john, are you next or is ike next . Ikes next . Well, ike, its a great pleasure to be here with you. Ike skelton. [applause] thank you, sam. Pete peterson, thank you or for your vision in putting this effort together. You could not have a better chairman than admiral mike mullen, and his leadership in the past has been outstanding, and it will continue to be outstanding through this effort. The late barbara tubman, historian, author, once wrote a book entitled march of folly where she talked about how certain countries took action and measures that were contrary to the interests of their own country. I think that we are close to writing another chapter for barbaras book should we go into sequestration and not have this challenge before us settled and settled properly. I have spent some 34 years in congress, i have worked well with the gentlemen on this stage, and i can tell you good stories, positive stories about sam nunn and john warner and how we worked out some very difficult issues. But we got them done. I think sams absolutely right that its a matter of political will. Let me, let me say that thetive of not producing a solution to this debt crisis, the socalled fiscal cliff, could bring about the sequestration that is the slicing of the military right in half. That would be a disaster in many respects. Across the world people would see we cant handle our own country well, our own defense well. People across the world would see us failing to fulfill the duty of the constitution to provide for the National Defense thats up to congress to do that. But after we get this done and lets hope that it does come