Lindsey Graham

My assessment is we would have a significant degradation of our counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan, were we to do that.

I think if not the proximate cause of the ISIL movement, certainly one of the primary drivers of the ISIL movement was the abuses of the Assad regime.

Most of the countries that you spoke about all have a shared goal of removing Assad from power.

So at the end of the day, I do not want the tsunami to come, so we are going to have to stop these guys.

If we were to fail in stopping ISIL, I think you will see an expansion of ISIL not only across the Middle East but outside the Middle East.

The President could not have chosen a better person to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

How in the world are we going to dislodge ISIL from Syria without a ground component?

The only way you can keep them from coming back here to America is to stay over there, disrupt their operations.

The reason I want to continue to invest in Afghanistan... is because they are trying to hit us.

I want to withdraw from Afghanistan responsibly. I want lines of defenses over there so they don't come here.

If it doesn't, we are incredibly stupid as a nation.

Do you think AQAP [al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] wants to hit us? Very definitely.

I think they want to hit us.

Everything they have said they would do, they have done.

The only reason 3,000 Americans died on 9/11 is that the radical Islamists who attacked us could not find a way to kill more of us?

Change is coming. I just really appreciate the input that you've given us.

It seems to me that the person who's going to pay the most is the retiree, no matter what you do.

Hearing come to order. I apologize for being late.

I think this modernization effort of a blended plan will serve the country well.

If it is below 20 percent cost share, it will be because I think you have earned a discount when it comes to health care.

We want to do right by them, and that means a new benefit that doesn't exist today.

We are $17 trillion, $18 trillion in debt and we ought to be looking for savings where we can.

Eighty-five percent of the people in the current TRICARE system would not expect to see an increase in copayments.

Now, the hope is that, if you make this change, the benefits go up and make it worth the additional investment.

It is not fair to kick somebody out at 12 at no fault of their own, because we are reducing the force.