Welcome to today's podcast, sponsored by Hillsdale College. All things Hillsdale at Hillsdale.edu. I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there. And, of course, I'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues, all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale. Or just Google, Apple, iTunes, and Hillsdale. Good, Gloria, and Evening Grace, America. I'm Hugh Hew at what a night and day of of news. We got a lot to cover today, and I will cover it all, but I'm starting with the United States Senator, Senator Collins of Maine. Senator Collins, I wanted to talk to you about budget, and I'm going to do that, but first, let me get your reaction to deal, no deal, ceasefire, no ceasefire. it's really unfolding so i i don't yet have an opinion that's fixed

other than if the straight reopens it's a big win for america how do you view it well certainly

getting the straight reopened is a big win not only for America, but for our allies as well.

The news reports have been so conflicting all day that it's difficult to know whether the

ceasefire is holding or not.

My goal is for this military conflict to be brief and successful.

We must ensure that Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon. We learned that it had thousands of ballistic missiles, which essentially provide a shield for its

enrichment of uranium. And we know that Iran remains the leading state sponsor of terrorism.

Nevertheless, I don't want to see boots on the ground, except for the

amazing rescue of those two airmen, which was truly extraordinary, and I don't want to see a long

conflict. So I hope the ceasefire is going to hold and be transformed into a

permanent cessation of hostilities with Iran giving up. It finally, it's nuclear ambitions and

its sponsorship of terrorist groups all over the world.

That is the best case.

That's what I think we might be getting, but it's going to be in the details.

Now, we learned a lot.

You mentioned the remarkable rescue.

The American military never ceases to amaze, and they've done remarkable things.

But we've learned that the conflict is expensive, and we are a sea and air power primarily,

and budgets have to reflect that, and that we're going to need a lot of new munitions and drones

and ships.

Your chair of appropriations in the Senate, President Trump sent a budget request of $1.5 trillion last week, including a lot of money

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