If you ask an 18-year-old if he wants to go work at In-N-Out for $22 an hour or join the Army for the equivalent of $12 an hour you are going to get 95 percent of them going to In-N-Out.

An E-1 right now even with the 5 percent raise last year and the 4.5 percent increase in this President's budget request is still $22,000, $23,000 a year.

We passed, out of HAC-D, a bill that took the starting salary for an E-1 from $22,000 to $31,000, which is the equivalent of $15 per hour.

You all know my number one priority is our troops, especially our junior enlisted, E-1 through E-6. They are the most precious, they are the most potent, and they are the most powerful weapon system that we have.

I would encourage you to look at my RAISE Act, which takes the starting salary of an E1 from $22,000 and brings it up to $31,000.

I personally have no doubt that we would win a war against China. I think it would be protracted, very bloody, extended, probably not popular after time.

The other request I have is that you continue to remind the young marines and sailors that the military spouse licensing relief law is now law of the land.

I see our biggest near-term tactical threat is our open southern border, and obviously the biggest strategic threat, which I treat as an existential threat to our country, being China, as well as our debt, but that is not your fault.

In California last week, and we brought this up in an earlier hearing with SECNAV as well, and we have had discussions with SecDef about it as well.

I would like to expand that and enable that on the authorizing side with HASC to get that to apply to the Reserve side.

If we can get the local communities to pay for that second income to augment the total household income and get quality of life above the poverty line, then we can save American taxpayer dollars.