Banks and Moulton on Military Might and the American Future
War on the Rocks
War on the Rocks
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 November 2020
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, two members of Congress from two sides of the aisle came together to deliver a message of consensus on the future of the American military. And they did so on the eve of the most contentious presidential election in living memory. Looking for an escape from the drama? Interested in the revolutionary steps the United States needs to take to maintain its military edge? Listen to this episode with Rep. Jim Banks and Rep. Seth Moulton, who c0-chaired the Future of Defense Task Force. You can read the task force's final report (pdf) as well.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are listening to the War on the Rocks podcast on Strategy, Defense and Foreign Affairs. |
| 0:15.4 | My name is Ryan Evans, I'm the CEO of War in the Rocks. |
| 0:18.0 | In this episode, we got just a day before the election, a Democrat and a Republican to talk about defense. |
| 0:25.6 | Representative Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, |
| 0:31.5 | co-chair the bipartisan Future Defense Task Force, and we talk about |
| 0:35.2 | their important findings in this episode. |
| 0:38.1 | Thanks for listening. |
| 0:42.1 | Could you both tell me how this task force came together? We hear about these |
| 0:46.2 | task forces, these commissions, but how does it actually work in practice? How do |
| 0:49.2 | these things come to be? So the Future Defense task force was created by the leadership of the House Armed Services |
| 0:56.4 | Committee. |
| 0:57.4 | What makes it unique per the rules of our committee is that a task force can be set up but it has to be entirely bipartisan. |
| 1:06.4 | So in the Congress you always have a chairman and a ranking member of any committee. |
| 1:12.5 | In this case, Congressman Moulton and I are co-chairs. |
| 1:16.2 | We both have three additional members from our parties. |
| 1:19.9 | And the rules of the House allow us to set up a task force with an expiration day of six months to study a particular issue and then release a report, which is what we've done. |
| 1:31.0 | In a time like this, I think I can speak for both Seth and I, what's |
| 1:34.4 | extraordinary about the task force is the bipartisan nature of it. And what I'm |
| 1:39.6 | most proud of is that we publish a report in the end that all eight members, Republican and Democrat, equally endorsed and signed their name to, and that's where we are at this point. |
| 1:52.0 | And we have at this point. |
| 1:52.7 | And we have some tough recommendations. |
| 1:54.8 | This isn't just softball stuff that everybody can easily agree to. |
... |
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