Of course. Of course. I mean, does anybody believe now that Bashar Assad is going to willingly lead power?

As President Trump assumes the awesome responsibilities of his office, he has inherited a world on fire and a U.S. military weakened by years of senseless budget cuts.

The epitome of this forgetfulness is the Budget Control Act of 2011, which cut and arbitrarily capped defense spending for a decade.

I can tell you that from--I know one thing about South Carolina. The majority of them do not support a vote in favor of withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan.

No. No. I don't get it.

Do not take it from other things that make this country strong.

What were you thinking, honestly, when you voted for an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan?

Congress should be leading on finding savings, not just adding dollars to our defense budget.

I would also remind you that the first thing--the first thing--that President Reagan--his first priority was rebuilding the military.

As Chairman McCain has noted in his just-released White Paper, the combined effects of nearly $1.5 trillion of cuts over a decade have been devastating to our military.

Thank you, Chairman McCain, Ranking Member Reed, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for this invitation to appear before you today to discuss the defense budget for fiscal year 2018 and beyond.

Like sequestration, it is kind of a cowardly act because it is authentication that we cannot make the tough decisions ourselves.