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Washington was that the biggest dubs wore uniforms. and that's because they have seen the face of war and they have been thrown into conflicts only to have political support evaporate behind them. and so being very cautious about the use of force, i think, is incredibly important. right now the biggest threat to our national security, as far as i'm concerned, is the paralysis in washington and the uncertainty with respect to the defense programs, uncertainty about what kinds of military capabilities we're going to need for the future, where our record in predicting where we will use military f...

Have been thrown into conflicts only to have political support evaporate behind them. and so being very cautious about the use of force, i think, is incredibly important. right now the biggest threat to our national security, as far as i'm concerned, is the paralysis in washington and the uncertainty with respect to the defense programs, uncertainty about what kinds of military capabilities we're going to need for the future, where our record in predicting where we will use military force next is perfect over the last 40 years. we've never once gotten it right. >> reporter: do you think we hav...

Democrats who argue these safety net programs work. i'm joined by richard fowler, advocacy director for young democrats for america and john fehry. john, i don't know if you heard senator wicker earlier, he was talking about wanting to get cuts to entitlement programs in part to pay for defense programs. but are studies like this proof, john, that these programs are critical to keeping the poverty rate down? >> well, we do have a need for a social safety net. it also needs to lift people up out of poverty and not keep them in poverty. there's another problem here, chris, and that is that we ar...

And how will those people i just talked about be able to afford a gallon of milk at eight bucks? >> well, they won't be able to. that's what's so sad about this. it seems many in the republican conference don't seem to understand what it's like to be poor in america. most of the people receiving food stamps, sure, you have to be below 130% of the poverty line, but a big percentage of those families live at less than half the poverty level. and yet the way the republicans would try to balance our budget would be not to deal with our tax policy, not to look at ways to trim the cost of defense pr...

Responsibility for that? >> i think the history of crisis management goes back longer than this administration, and i think the divisions in congress are -- is as deep as they've been in modern times. you know, you look at what we've been able to accomplish notwithstanding all the noise. we're in a very different place now than we were even in 2011, 2010. our deficit is cut in half as a percentage of the economy from when the president took office. >> aren't automatic spending cuts, which the president opposed, a big reason for that? >> it's part of that, but there is a tendency in washington ...