#162: Break The System - Representative Jake Ellzey (TX-6)

Congress holds the power of the purse. The United States Government is the largest business in the world, but to conduct business - and national security - Congress has to approve the funds and the money. Representative Jake Ellzey https://ellzey.house.gov/ is now a 3-term Congressman representing Texas’s 6th District. He’s a Naval Academy graduate, a helicopter and fighter pilot, and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, where his decisions determine what the government funds and what it doesn’t. He’s also the co-chair of the bipartisan military Veterans alliance, the For Country Caucus https://withhonor.org/for-country-caucus/. With the American government changing at lightning pace, Fran Racioppi https://www.linkedin.com/in/francisracioppijr/ asked the Congressman how the Appropriations Committee is prioritizing funding, what that means for national defense, rooting out fraud, waste and abuse; and if there’s ever a way for America to balance the budget and stop overspending. Representative Ellzey also shares why we need to clearly define America’s next battlefield, funding military readiness and innovation to combat both nation-state adversaries and terror groups, and the critical role he sees our Special Operations Forces playing in the grey war the United States is now in. Plus he shares his leadership lessons from the cockpit and the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan to the halls of Congress. Watch, listen or read our conversation from Congressman Ellzey’s office. Don’t miss our full coverage from Capitol Hill. Special thanks to For Country Caucus for setting up this series. Highlights 0:00 Introduction6:20 Veterans in Congress9:12 Why the Navy?10:50 The Appropriations Committee14:45 Funding Executive Orders17:24 DOGE’s impact22:41 Funding Military Readiness25:35 Role of SOF in the next conflict27:20 The sentiment of America31:50 Shout out to Green Berets34:08 Defining the Battlefield38:18 Why Was There An Open Border Policy39:44 Can America Balance The Budget?40:42 Is America Ready?42:41 Military Lessons Taken To Congress Key Quotes: “There’s a thing about veterans: it really doesn’t matter which era, what your uniform, or how well you know somebody who’s a veteran…Nobody else gets into that world.”“With SEALS, Green Berets, most pilots; tell me I can’t do something, and then watch.”“CR’s are bad. Year-long CRs are terrible. Specifically for defense.” “Once we know what the priorities of the President are, we’re not going to put something on the floor that ultimately he’s not going to sign.”“It’s broken. So let’s break it. Let’s break the whole thing.”“There’s not enough money to do everything we need to do to be completely ready.” “It’s absolutely essential that our adversaries know that we’ve got the best in the world.”“The sentiment of Americans is we’re strong again, we’re not to be trifled with, if you attack us, we’re going to hammer you.”“I’m a huge fan of Green Berets.”“I see weapons of mass destruction as the compounds that are making Fentanyl.” “Never pass up the opportunity to shut up.” Follow the Jedburgh Podcast https://www.instagram.com/jedburghpodcast/ and the Green Beret Foundation https://www.instagram.com/greenberetfoundation/ on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform https://pod.link/1558608802, read on our website https://greenberetfoundation.org/jedburghpodcast/investing-in-military-infrastructure-jumping-in-with-arkansas-senator-john-boozman, and watch the full video version on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@jedburghpodcast as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are an official program of The Green Beret Foundation https://greenberetfoundation.org/. The opinions presented on the The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are the opinions of my guests and myself. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Beret Foundation and the Green Beret Foundation assumes no liability for their accuracy, nor does Green Beret Foundation endorse any political candidate or any political party.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Fran Racioppi?

  Congress holds the power of the purse. The United States government is the largest business in the world, but to conduct business and national security, Congress has to approve the money. Representative Jake Elsie is now a three-term congressman representing Texas's 6th District. He's a Naval Academy graduate, a helicopter and fighter pilot, and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, where his decisions determine what the government funds and what it doesn't. He's also the co-chair of the bipartisan military veterans alliance, the Four Country Caucus. With the American government changing at a lightning pace, I asked the congressman how the Appropriations Committee is prioritizing funding, what that means for national defense, how they're rooting out broad waste and abuse, and if there's ever a way for America to

• 0:46Fran Racioppi?

  balance the budget and stop overspending. Representative Elsie also shares why we need a clearly defined America's next battlefield, funding military readiness and innovation to combat bold nation-state adversaries and terror groups, and the critical role he sees our special operations forces playing in the gray war the United States is now in. Plus, he shares his leadership lessons from the cockpit and the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan to the halls of Congress. Watch, listen, or read our conversation from Congressman Elsie's office. Don't miss our full coverage from Capitol Hill. Special thanks to the Four Country Caucus for setting up this series. The Jedberg Podcast is brought to you by University of Health and Performance, providing our veterans world-class education and training as fitness and nutrition entrepreneurs.

• 1:29Fran Racioppi?

  Follow the Jedberg Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media, listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. The opinions presented on the Jedberg Podcast and the Jedberg Media Channel are the opinions of my guests and myself. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Beret Foundation, and the Green Beret Foundation assumes no liability for their accuracy, nor does Green Beret Foundation endorse any political candidate or any political party.

• 2:04Fran Racioppi?

  Representative Alzey, welcome to the Jedberg Podcast.

• 2:06Speaker 01

  Thanks for having me, Fran.

• 2:07Fran Racioppi?

  You're already making me laugh.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  Good. That's the point. That's what fighter pilots do. We don't actually accomplish much, but we do make people laugh from time to time.

• 2:14Fran Racioppi?

  It's true, and there's a lot of

• 2:15Speaker 01

  Now, that's Navy fighter pilots. I know you're gonna be talking to an Air Force whatever, but Navy pilots have a sense of humor.

• 2:20Fran Racioppi?

  I just left your Air Force comrade downstairs, Representative Davis, where we talked all about the Air Force Academy.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  No senses of humor.

• 2:28Fran Racioppi?

  He was very adamant about the importance of the Air Force Academy and what it means to national security. But we had to come here to talk about the Navy, the importance of the Navy, because I really don't care what anybody says.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  You're right.

• 2:42Fran Racioppi?

  All right, we talk a lot about like, American strength, you know, combat power, but the reality of the situation is, when America needs to project combat power, there is nothing like a carrier strike group coming off your coast.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  If you need it quick, it's an aircraft carrier off your coast that has historically, for 80 years, been a power projection tool that the United States has, and the first question out of every president's mouth is, where's the carrier? It's intended to prevent conflict from either starting or getting worse, but it can certainly deliver a lot of ordinance if necessary, and at a better cost than, than a lot of missiles that we're shooting around these days. So, I was very proud of my Navy time on aircraft carriers. I did eight deployments total on aircraft carriers, one on the ground with my SEAL brethren. But I'm also a huge proponent of the silent service, because you can't find out where they are. They're very, they're very quiet, and they are, put fear in the heart of the adversary as well.

• 3:34Fran Racioppi?

  Well, we're gonna talk about all of the elements of combat power, but importantly, right now, we gotta thank you and your team and the Four Country Caucus for bringing us back into the halls of Congress to sit down with another series of members. We were here back in September, right before the election, and we had some great exchanges as we were gearing up for the election with a number of the members, and now, to be able to come back, speak post-election with another group is critically important.

• 4:03Speaker 01

  It's a different world.

• 4:04Fran Racioppi?

  Message out.

• 4:05Speaker 01

  It is a different world after the election.

• 4:07Fran Racioppi?

  It is a different world. So, you can feel it when you walk in the building. But you represent Texas 6th District, so it's southeast. Of Dallas, Fort Worth.

• 4:14Speaker 01

  Right.

• 4:15Fran Racioppi?

  I know my tech.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  That's very good.

• 4:16Fran Racioppi?

  From the northeast. I got a large portion of Tarrant County, which I know is part of Dallas is part of that.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Tarrant County is Mansfield, which is where Tarrant County is Fort Worth and Dallas County. I do have a part of Irving, Las Colinas. So it's a very strange district and then very rural south and southeast of that.

• 4:34Fran Racioppi?

  It's your third consecutive term in Congress. So you were part of the 118th and 117th. As you mentioned, graduated the Naval Academy 20 years as a helicopter pilot and also you flew F-14s and F-18s. You served on the Ronald Reagan, among other ships, and you talked about your combat deployments, but also post-service. Interestingly, and I'm going to ask you about this, you spent time as a military contractor in Afghanistan.

• 4:56Speaker 01

  I did.

• 4:56Fran Racioppi?

  Run small businesses, a commercial airline pilot, and then held state titles as well.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  I did.

• 5:02Fran Racioppi?

  Which I think is important to when we talk about understanding government. And the difference between state government and federal government. And I think that's a conversation that's being had. Certainly today, all you got to do is turn on the news.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 5:16Fran Racioppi?

  Very importantly for this conversation, though, you are a member of the House Appropriations Committee. And so that's the power of the purse.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  It is. And Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I'm the vice chair of that.

• 5:27Fran Racioppi?

  And we can't do anything without the money.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 5:31Fran Racioppi?

  And that is a topic, I think, that permeates every administration. But when we look at change, which we're certainly undergoing some rapid change right now. I think that's going to be a very big topic of discussion over the next couple of weeks.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  It is.

• 5:45Fran Racioppi?

  So the 119th Congress has just started. We're a few weeks in. It's your third go around. So let's start with the 119th Congress. You've got 100 members who are veterans that serve in Congress in this session. That is the most over the course of the last eight Congresses that have convened. Veterans, by and large, I think are great team players and they're results driven. And they create unity in organizations. I don't think it matters what side of the aisle you sit on. We have definitely come out of the most politically charged campaign that we've had, possibly since Aaron Burr, I think, shot someone. We had President And Trump get shot at.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:25Fran Racioppi?

  So certainly a very divisive campaign, but everybody is coming together with the message of, hey, we've got to figure out how to get along now, bring America back together and let's get after it for the people. As you look across your fellow veterans in Congress, how are you working with them and rallying them to see the unity that has to happen for your country?

• 6:47Speaker 01

  Well, it's a new Congress. It's a new administration. It's a new philosophy on defense. And we have 26 members of our, of the four country caucus, some of whom are brand new to Congress. So we are just getting organized. I'm a new co-chair, as is Don Davis. There have been some changes to the organizational setup. And so we're looking forward to having a nonpartisan, defense-driven, national security and veterans care caucus that is increasingly vocal and increasingly effective on making sure that as Americans who have served, we know what's important. We put our lives on the line. Couple of them have been drafted. We've got two Vietnam veterans, one Republican, one Democrat, who were actually drafted and everybody else is a volunteer with

• 7:32Speaker 01

  a vast array of experiences, both in combat and in peacetime, medical care, pilots, infantry, green berets. So we run the gamut, but we all get along really well. And there's a thing about veterans. It really doesn't matter which era, what your uniform was, or how well you know somebody who's a veteran. There is a sense of humor that we all share, that we can only share amongst veterans. Nobody else gets into that world. Nobody else can insult a fellow veteran and that the understanding be that that's brotherly love.

• 8:04Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  Nobody else gets to do that. Nobody gets to talk to me like that who's not a veteran, but my veteran friends can insult me all day long and I love it. Dan Crenshaw is a prime example. Mike Garcia, who just, who got defeated, I was a VFA 14 with him. He and I would go back and forth and it was all about how veterans can interact with each other. Nobody else gets to play that game, but fellow veterans.

• 8:26Fran Racioppi?

  Well, I mean, speaking of, you did decide to join the Navy, so you were looking for the easy way out.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  I was looking for the easy, that's absolutely true. Landing on carriers for, you know, for 20 years, that's the easy way out. I completely agree. But I couldn't swim, so I wasn't going to be a SEAL. I'm terrible at swimming. I didn't want to stand in formation to find out when the next formation is like the Army does.

• 8:47Fran Racioppi?

  Well, you gotta wait on the word. That's it. What are you doing over here? We're waiting on the word.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  Well, I'm kind of an independent thinker. I know you guys have to be told what to do.

• 8:54Fran Racioppi?

  That's why I had to go ahead.

• 8:55Speaker 01

  See, it's that kind of thing. We don't even know each other and we're already going back and forth. Veterans get to do that and it's a bonding mechanism between veterans. And I do it to Don Davis and we don't know each other that well, but we're getting to know each other really well, very quickly. And so that's part of the, because up here, especially in the four country caucus, we trust each other inherently because we're all veterans and we know that there is a line in which you can't betray that trust. You're going to be out. So we automatically trust each other and have that camaraderie that doesn't exist anywhere else.

• 9:24Fran Racioppi?

  Well, it's about the mission.

• 9:25Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 9:25Fran Racioppi?

  You know, and what matters is the mission. But I want to ask you, as we're joking about the Navy, why join the Navy in the first place?

• 9:31Speaker 01

  Originally, well, I always wanted to fly jets and originally I used to get Air Force magazine and wanted to fly the F-16 or the F-15. And then my stepdad and I were talking about, he took me flying when I was seven. I was hooked. I knew I wanted to be a fighter pilot of some kind. And then he said, well, you know, F-18s land on aircraft carriers that have a 300 foot runway with three wires. And I have a history of trying to do the hardest thing possible, just because I know looking back on life, if I hadn't tried, running for Congress, failing a couple of times, running for office, you have to give that effort. And I think that's another commonality among veterans. You have to try something that's going to test you. And so I wanted to fly fighters off of aircraft carriers.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  And when I selected out of primary flight training, I got helicopters and I was told that I would never fly jets. That's another thing is especially with SEALs, Green Berets, most pilots, tell me I can't do something and then watch.

• 10:26Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah. I mean, look, it's about the result. Failure is never an option.

• 10:29Speaker 01

  Never an option.

• 10:30Fran Racioppi?

  And I think when you look at elite performance in any industry, even the most successful business people, you know, they'll tell you all the time that was there always a fear that you might not make it? It's sort of in the back of your head, but you always had a plan. There was always a plan to succeed and that's what mattered.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  And that's the SEALs. You know, I spent six months with them, with my colleague, now colleague, Morgan Luttrell and his brother Marcus. We were on deployment together in Iraq in 2006 and Marcus's motto is team never quit. So, and he never did. So that's a commonality amongst all of us too.

• 11:01Fran Racioppi?

  Let's talk about the appropriations committee.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 11:04Fran Racioppi?

  They control the money. What is, in your words, the mission of the appropriations committee?

• 11:10Speaker 01

  It's to fund what the authorizers have funded, making sure that these, that particularly when it comes to defense appropriations is ensuring that our best and brightest are paid appropriately and have the best equipment on the planet to prevent war and if necessary to go to war, overwhelmingly achieve victory. And so from the defense appropriations standpoint, that's how I see it. The appropriations process, 30 cents of every dollar is discretionary spending. So that's what the appropriations committee deals with. 70 cents of every dollar that the government spends is mandatory spending, which we don't even see. That's a flip from 60 years ago. 60 years ago, it was 30% mandatory, 70% discretionary.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  Of that 30 cents, 15 cents or 50% of the discretionary spending is military. So appropriations as a piece of the pie has gotten a lot smaller. We need to get it back to a majority of discretionary because it matters year to year what we're spending. So it's a, it's a complex process. We're still dealing with the 25 fiscal year spending bills. We're operating on a CR right now that goes to the 14th of March and we need to pass those remaining appropriations bills from fiscal year 25 going forward. Fiscal year ends in September. So it's a very complex process and we haven't passed all 12 appropriations bills in one year in 27 years and that needs to change. And I think we have an opportunity to do that now.

• 12:33Fran Racioppi?

  How though? How do you get out of that cycle? Because it seems like we consistently have that same conversation. I mean, I remember me even being in the army when they're like, oh, don't use too many paper goods because you're not going to have them in a couple of weeks because they're not going to have any pay and you know, everybody scares you out of all this. But how do we break that cycle?

• 12:51Speaker 01

  I think we have a, well, a divided government usually leads to continuing resolutions, which means you're paying the, paying for the operation of the government based on last year's funding, which is not good for defensive starts. So CRs are bad. Year-long CRs are terrible, specifically for defense. So if we're interested in turning the corner on defending our country from one administration to the next, which I believe- Believe this one is you have to pass the actual funding bills because we have a lot of new starts of equipment and systems that we need to start paying for that we can't do on a CR. So how do we get that done? I think we have a unique opportunity, especially in fiscal year 26, with a new team, House, Senate and White House to accomplish that mission based on the top lines that we're given.

• 13:35Speaker 01

  We're still waiting on the top lines, meaning how much money can we spend fiscal year 26? We don't have that number yet. The Biden administration was two months late every year on what their budget was. That's supposed to come out in February. And so we were behind timeline from the very beginning. So it's a constant cycle. We have to break that cycle.

• 13:52Fran Racioppi?

  So you brought up a lot about planning and we're going to talk about military readiness in a minute. But what we see in the news every day is rapid change for the last several weeks since the Trump administration came in. That's one way to put it, right? But to date, President Trump has signed 60 executive orders, ranging from everything from tariffs to pauses on foreign aid, illegal immigration, and medical care issues. Just the other day, Super Bowl Sunday, we saw the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. And now February 9th is the Gulf of America Day.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  I didn't see that one.

• 14:28Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, that was just the other day. Now, we for sure, everybody knew that when the president came in, he was going to shake the tree. I'm not sure everybody knew how hard that tree was going to get shaken. And in the military, we have this saying that slow is smooth and smooth is fast. But we also have the saying that speed and violence of action gets immediate results. And sometimes you have to do that. When you look at the executive orders that have come out, normally when we talk about funding initiatives in the government, it has to be through legislation. It has to be through laws that are passed here in Congress. However, executive orders are another way to get things done. So how do you go about funding these things when you don't necessarily have a law that's been passed? But the boss says, hey, get to work. We got things to do.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  Now, he's got to have buy-in because he's going to sign whatever spending bill that you pass out of here. So the best thing about this is Mike Johnson, Tom Cole, Steve Scalise, the leadership team, are coordinating very, very effectively. actively with President Trump, his legislative team, his defense team, Pete Hayes that just got confirmed a week ago. Has it been only a week? Only a week ago. And so there's a lot of catching up to do, but there's autumn, there is right now, there is a lot of good coordination between everybody about the way forward. So we're still dealing with 25 stuff, which was the stuff from last, last administration, last Congress. But going forward, I think you'll see, once we know what priorities of the president are, we're not going to put something on the floor that ultimately he's not going to sign.

• 15:55Speaker 01

  So we're going to be very closely aligned on what it is he wants because he's at peak power right now and he's got to sign it. But we always knew that. We always know that regardless of the administration. So planning is always underway with the staff. We have a fantastic staff on the appropriations committee, but then you throw in Doge and that kind of changes things. And I think it, it remains to be seen what that looks like. We do have some time on the fiscal year 26 stuff, since we don't even have a, a top line yet, but we do know which programs we need to see continued. We know which ones need to start. So we can work within that framework.

• 16:28Fran Racioppi?

  Let's talk about Doge for a second because you brought it up. We know from our early days, probably yourself from the academy, I remember sitting in OCS, you sat in classes on fraud, waste and abuse. Right. How to identify it? What do you do? The fact that it exists despite all of our best efforts throughout history, if you could go back to the Continental Army and there was probably fraud, waste and abuse. And so Doge has come in, Elon Musk and his team have, are really getting involved in seeing what's happening in so many different organizations and what we're seeing broad cuts. We're seeing entire agencies shut down. We're seeing, you know, reductions in personnel and programs. Elon Musk obviously has entire support of the president. Actually, a few minutes ago, as we were walking up here, they were in the Oval Office voicing their support

• 17:11Fran Racioppi?

  for each other, but they've made some good points. They've said, look, America is the biggest business in the world. And if we don't run a business that's profitable, then your business isn't going to be around for a long time.

• 17:25Speaker 01

  Right.

• 17:25Fran Racioppi?

  And I think that that's a valid point. If you go back to and you look at the deficit and you look at the debt that's increasing, you see the ticker in Times Square that goes up endlessly. You have to ask yourself the question of, where can we find efficiencies to what we're doing? So how do you assess the performance of Doge thus far?

• 17:43Speaker 01

  I think it's breaking things. I think that that's a good thing, especially when it comes to the acquisition and requirements processes that we have at the Pentagon. If you'll recall, the Pentagon wasn't started construction until 9/11 of 1941. It didn't exist. We have a big behemoth on the other side of the river, the Pentagon, that is fully staffed with a bunch of different rice bowls that we have shown in an era in which Russia and China are able to build things extremely fast without any input from anywhere else. And we've got a process by which our programs are taking years, if not decades, to be fielded. We won World War II in three and a half years. We didn't have a Pentagon. We had freedoms.

• 18:25Speaker 01

  If you read Freedoms Forge, I don't know if you've read that or not yet, but industry got together with the leadership over here and sometimes cut out the military because sometimes the military didn't know what they wanted and built more effective everything by the thousands. So we have a requirements and an acquisitions process and I just listened, sat down for a committee hearing with Hack D, with CENTCOM commander, General Corilla, who echoed what we just said. It's broken. So let's break it. Let's break the whole thing because especially as we're seeing in Ukraine and with Russia, the development of weapons that are effective is so exponentially much faster than it has ever been.

• 19:05Speaker 01

  We can't continue to have a system in which it takes 15 years for a weapons, a major weapons system to be fielded. And we have to stop adding things to everyone. I mean, we've got an Air Force one that's behind timeline, Marine one that's behind timeline, the F-35 was behind timeline. Name me a system that's actually on time. It's the B-21 and they developed that in a way that I think is the wave of the future. And so I think you'll start seeing that. Because I don't know anybody who doesn't believe that right now the process is broken. So we didn't have a lot of the two and three stars at the Pentagon of World War II when we said, we got to build this. We didn't have that process. And so I think you're going to see some improvements in that process immediately.

• 19:46Fran Racioppi?

  Well, I think that the delay in the production and the advancement in technology is real.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 19:51Fran Racioppi?

  And I think that we have to be cognizant of that. And I think that it has to be have to have very relevant discussions, a few examples. So you brought up Ukraine. Well, we know in my conversations that I've had with all the senior leadership throughout Special Operations Command, they'll all echo the same thing when you ask them a question and I'll ask you as well, what's the next battlefield? Well, the next battlefield is going to include drones.

• 20:13Speaker 01

  It's gonna.

• 20:14Fran Racioppi?

  Mass drone warfare and swarms. And previously, what we would see is you would have, you know, like a recce team would be first in. But first in is not going to be personnel.

• 20:25Speaker 01

  No.

• 20:25Fran Racioppi?

  And we're seeing that in Ukraine. Look at things like hypersonic technology.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 20:29Fran Racioppi?

  The last time we advanced hypersonic technology was the SR71 Blackbird, which is sitting over at Dulles in a museum right now. But Chinese have hypersonic technology.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  As far as you know.

• 20:40Fran Racioppi?

  As far as I know.

• 20:42Fran Racioppi?

  True. And I'm hopeful. I hope it's not a course of action, but I assume that we have some advancement there. Okay. And then you talked about aircraft carriers. We have aircraft carriers that are on a 15 year production cycle. And we know that China has more deep water ports than we do.

• 20:58Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 20:58Fran Racioppi?

  And they're able to produce an aircraft carrier in a couple of years. Now, we can talk about the capability of the aircraft carrier all day long.

• 21:04Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 21:04Fran Racioppi?

  Whereas ours, which matters.

• 21:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:06Fran Racioppi?

  We can't just throw that out, but we do have to change the process.

• 21:10Speaker 01

  Yep. Well, when you build one at a time, one year at a time, and you've got these very exquisite systems that you have to have subcontractors for all of them. Let's not forget what COVID did and the shutdown of our country did to all of these projects. It added years to the Air Force One, just to name one of a of many projects. The workforce timed out, the supply chain timed out. We had very, very stringent requirements from the last administration. On mining critical minerals. So there's a lot of talk about Greenland, Ukraine, critical minerals. Everything we use today in the modern world requires critical minerals. Can we produce that here in the United States?

• 21:51Speaker 01

  Yes. And I think you'll see a lot of changes as far as EPA rules, environmental rules, so that we can do that ourselves. We need to be energy independent, which I think we will be very soon. We also need to be critical mineral independent and self-sufficient as well. China's cornered the market on all that stuff. So it's not just one thing, but the supply chain has taken time. But if you build one carrier every 15 years, you're not going to have a workforce that's able to build a whole bunch of them and build it to scale. So we've got a lot of work to do. I think everybody is on board with recognizing that and moving forward.

• 22:25Fran Racioppi?

  Let's talk about national defense for a minute. We had the chance to come here a couple of weeks ago to DC. We sat down with former Sergeant Major of the Army, Dan Daley, and we had a great conversation about readiness, because when we look at our NCO Corps, what's their job in the military? Readiness. Ready the force. We define readiness in Congress here as the ability of military forces to fight and meet the demands of assigned missions. And we can break that down into manning, training, equipment, and leader development. When you look at readiness and how the Congress is currently funding the readiness of the military, what's the focus?

• 23:01Speaker 01

  Not enough money for too many things that we need. I agree with Senator Wicker. Needs to be 5% of GDP. We're just around 3% right now. There's not enough money to do everything we need to do to be completely ready. If we're completely ready and completely manned and completely funded, and we have the weapon systems we need, that's how you find peace. That's how you get peace. You run a risk of wider war when you don't have those things. And I think there's going to be a refocus. I think Secretary Hegseth has already started off on the right foot about merit and lethality. Merit and lethality. That is, he's singing my love song right there, our Defense Department. Now we need to ensure that we don't have a year-long CR. We pass an appropriations bill, certainly at least for defense. And there are ways that you can do that. You can have a combination CR and a defense bill. But it's all about actual

• 23:44Speaker 01

  boots on the ground, being ready to go. And if your adversary doesn't think that you're ready, that's when they strike. It looks a lot like 1938 to me. Four dictators back then, four dictators now, involved in imperial

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Activity. Ukraine is about imperial activity. It's about $26 trillion worth of lithium, natural gas, natural resources in Ukraine, so that they can control it. That's what China has done with a number of critical minerals. That's what Belt and Road is about. So if we're not ready, then they're going to come after us. We can repeat the mistakes that we made in 1916 and 1938, or we can choose not to. And if we go down the path of continuing to cut weapons systems, remember, we were supposed to build five times more F-22s than we ended up doing. We were supposed to have 750. Do you think we'd be talking about how many F-35s we have right now if we built 750 F-22s instead of 150? Absolutely not. Let's not go down that path again of saying, "Well, we don't need that many F-35s. It's

• 24:40Speaker 01

  time to cut this because we got something else." No, you don't. You don't replace, you don't kill one line without replacing it with something else. We can't afford that risk right now. Ask the Israelis how they took down the entire air defense capability of the Iranians. It's the F-35. And theirs is two levels below ours in capability. That should tell you about something about that weapon system. Big fan of the F-35.

• 25:04Fran Racioppi?

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• 25:44Fran Racioppi?

  Well, we have to look at the fact that we have multiple threats out there. So what you're talking about in the 1939 moment is the interwar period. And the interwar period, we've had a lot of senior leaders say we feel like we're there. You know, the other threat that we have, though, is the international terrorism. We had the withdrawal out of Afghanistan. We know that Al Qaeda has, there's a resurgence of Al Qaeda. Bin Laden's son is running around. There now married to all the daughters of the most biggest terrorists in history and that's a real threat.

• 26:13Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:13Fran Racioppi?

  And so not only do we have to prepare our conventional forces to combat the peer and near peers, but we have to prepare our soft forces.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:22Fran Racioppi?

  To be able to keep the near in front of peer.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 26:25Fran Racioppi?

  And keep us out of the peer to peer fight. So as you look to funding our soft forces, how do you see the implementation of special operations in the next fight?

• 26:35Speaker 01

  Oh, they've been an essential piece for many, many years. I don't see that changing. I'd like to see them actually have the opportunity to participate in development of some weapons systems on their own so that we can cut down on that time requirement between services. I think SOCOM should be considered a service that can go, I want that. I want it off the shelf. I don't want to do certain number of testing and evaluation. It's off the shelf. Give me that right now. And you can scale up size of weapons systems that are involved in that. FLIRA is one of those, which is the follow on to the V22 tilt rotor. FLIRA is going to give opportunities and capabilities that we've never seen before. And there's a slowdown in FLIRA right now. And I'm not going to go into the reasons for that right now, but we can't afford that. SOF needs that.

• 27:19Speaker 01

  SOF needs the V22 in ways that I don't think they even understand. And because they are the true tip of the spear and having served with them for six months, they do real efficient work and it's absolutely essential that our adversaries need to know we've got the best in the world. And when you close your eyes at night, you might wake up to somebody being in your room. That knowledge for our tier ones and in our other soft forces is something that keeps our adversaries up at night.

• 27:46Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, well, I agree. And I know most of those leaders who are leading those formations and I'll tell you that as great as they are, they're mean when they need to be.

• 27:54Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 27:55Fran Racioppi?

  When you look at the attitude of the country right now, you know, we were joking that there's a different feel here in Congress. All you gotta do is go on X or Instagram and scroll the feeds of all of the government organizations. There's a different look and feel to what's being posted today than there was several months. How do you assess just the sentiment of the population right now?

• 28:22Speaker 01

  I don't, first of all, the disclaimer, I don't get on X.

• 28:25Fran Racioppi?

  You shouldn't.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  I don't because I know for me, as an elected member of Congress, there's probably nothing good for me on there or about me. So I got two small kids. I'll let other people doom scroll for me. I get the overall sentiment and you know, you'll see it in news reports that will talk about X. So here's what I'm seeing, certainly in District Six, which is a very Republican district, largely rural. They're very proud of the fact that our military is now looking back, looking to be more lethal and merit based and that our president is saying, don't mess with us. Get our hostages out of Gaza. If there, you all need to pay more for your own defense. I'm a proud American who's glad we're in NATO. I believe NATO has taken the place of the UN

• 29:09Speaker 01

  in providing for peace. No NATO member has ever been attacked. I think that's taken on the role of the UN, which I think is a failed organization of international organization. But I also believe that member states from NATO, not the Baltics, who are spending about three to four percent, not Poland, but there's other members of NATO that do need to pick up the slack. And you know, I think it goes without saying that the president has singled out Canada in that regard, as well as Germany. So I'm not even sure what the question was now. I kind of got off topic, which is something I do from time to time, but did that answer?

• 29:40Fran Racioppi?

  Just about the sentiment of the-

• 29:41Speaker 01

  The sentiment of Americans is we're strong again. We're not to be trifled with. If you attack us, we're going to hammer you. You know, if you punch me in the face, you know, it's the Chicago way. If you watch The Untouchables, it's you punch me in the face, you're not going to like what happens next. It's going to be much worse than a punch in the face. And I think Americans have been ready for that for a long time because instinctively, since kindergarten, you know, when the bully comes for your milk money, you have a binary choice. You can give it to him and you'll give it to him every day for the rest of your life. Or you can go no and punch him in the face and he'll never ask again. It's human nature and what we see in the world is a bunch of bullies who are willing to kill, rape, destroy and empirically take over other nations in a way we haven't seen in 80 years and Americans-

• 30:26Speaker 01

  Want to know that on the border, we're strong, that we're going to prevent fentanyl from killing 70,000 Americans every year and that our troops are being promoted and trained on merit and lethality only so that our adversaries know if they come after us, we will destroy them. Kurt Schlichter, who I am a huge fan of, he wrote an article some time ago, and it was after October 7th, somewhere around the time of November, and he said, "We need to rediscover ruthlessness." And I asked the question from time to time, if Truman, FDR, Patton, and Eisenhower were to be alive today, running our forces, and we had to refight World War II, would they be tried for war crimes? Do we have the will to win anymore?

• 31:08Speaker 01

  Because what I have seen is, in the previous four years, a willingness just to not lose, instead of a willingness to win. And in war, there's only one way to win. And that is not just, "Oh, well, let's be nice." It doesn't work that way. And we have an effectively thought that our adversaries need to know, we're going to win, and we're going to do whatever it takes to win. So don't start this fight. And I think Xi Jinping, if you talk about the South China Sea, you talk about Taiwan, Xi Jinping is not going to start that fight if he thinks it's a tie or worse. And right now, it's, we're doing okay. But if he gets the sense that he can win, that's when he goes. And we can't let him have that feeling.

• 31:49Speaker 01

  And I know Pappy Paparo, who I served with, Indo-PACOM commander, would do anything for Pappy Paparo. That guy's got a plan to win. And so I think that's what Americans everywhere are feeling. We've got to feel, we're going to win this. Don't mess with us. So I think that's the attitude, certainly in my district, and I think throughout the country. That's how he gets cheered at the Super Bowl, and somebody else didn't. Yeah, they're upset about that.

• 32:13Fran Racioppi?

  I would agree with you, and I would say that that attitude of playing to win versus trying not to lose is something that you have to have in you as a leader.

• 32:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 32:26Fran Racioppi?

  You expect to be successful. And my daughter and I, she's in high school, and we just had that conversation about her volleyball team. About going out there and playing to win versus playing not to lose.

• 32:36Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 32:36Fran Racioppi?

  Changes the whole game and that permeates an A to what you do.

• 32:39Speaker 01

  Last question, then I gotta let you go. No, you don't. Keep going.

• 32:44Fran Racioppi?

  Okay, well, if I can keep.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  We're having fun. Can I address something real quick before I forget?

• 32:48Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah.

• 32:49Speaker 01

  I want to talk about Mike Waltz.

• 32:50Fran Racioppi?

  Okay.

• 32:51Speaker 01

  I want to talk about our national security advisor.

• 32:52Fran Racioppi?

  Great friend of the Jedburgh Podcast, been on a number of times.

• 32:55Speaker 01

  And I told you before this interview that I want to talk about Green Berets. He is perfect in that role and my observation of Green Berets, who I've never served with, other than in Congress with Mike, is that Green Berets are strategic. They are long term. I asked you what language you learned. So they learn a language. They embed themselves in a group of people, wherever they are, that may have nothing in common with them. They will get to learn their habits. They will mimic those. They will mirror those. They will get trusted and accepted by that or that group of people. Then they will train them to for self-defense as if they were part of the family. That's why he's going to be so good at NSA juggling the intelligence community, state, defense,

• 33:41Speaker 01

  President Trump, Vice President Vance. He's perfect for that job because as I watched him in Congress, it's exactly what he did here. That's what you guys do is bring together a group of people who may not have anything, any reason to coordinate or collaborate. And he'll bring them all together so that the security of the nation of the United States is secure. So I'm a huge fan of Green Berets. I'm a huge fan of Mike Waltz.

• 34:07Fran Racioppi?

  There's a term and actually Mike Waltz's book is called Warrior Diplomat. And when you look at what is the job of a Green Beret? It's to be your best friend and your worst enemy. And you don't know which one you might get. It depends on what's going to be needed at that moment.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 34:23Fran Racioppi?

  And I do agree with you. I think Mike's done a great job of doing that and it is great to see him advance. And as I said, he's been on the show a number of times. And we've had some great conversations about what is the risk from China? What is the risk from Iran? And not how do we baby them? It's what you're saying, you know, how do we, if we are really in conflict with China, then we have to stop talking about things. Things like just the military aspect. I had a conversation several years ago with Newt Gingrich when he was on. And we talked about DIME, the elements of national power. Diplomatic, information, military and economic. And so how do we look at our adversaries across the world? And when we talk about being at war.

• 35:05Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 35:05Fran Racioppi?

  What is the definition of the battlefield?

• 35:07Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 35:08Fran Racioppi?

  The battlefield is going to be different.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Cause theirs is different than ours is. We still think it's mono a mono on the sea and on the battlefield. They're already engaged in it right now. If you're losing 70,000 Americans, 200 a day to fentanyl that all comes from China. Do you think Xi Jinping doesn't know that stuff's coming over here from there? Absolutely, he does. But how do you diminish the birth rate artificially of a nation? The future of their economy? You kill 218 to 49 year olds every day. Most of whom are going to be great contributors to that society. So we're already in it. Just because the battlefield has changed. I see weapon of mass destruction as the compounds that are making fentanyl. As that's the first battlefield and we are not.

• 35:53Speaker 01

  And the last administration paid no attention to it. This one is going to do that. And it's making especially those members who are from Texas. Recognizing that junk is coming up through our communities from the border. We're excited about that. We can't allow, and it's poisoning, right? It's not, it's not an addictive drug. It's one pill can kill. So these people are getting poisoned. That's a weapon of mass destruction that's being used on us with that penalty right now. So to your point, China is playing by hold Sun Tzu's rules of warfare, which if you read them, it's multi domain.

• 36:24Fran Racioppi?

  But how come we don't talk about it? So let's take the, take the number you put there. You said 200 people, 200 people a day.

• 36:29Speaker 01

  300 a day from drug addiction, from drugs and fentanyl. That's the same number we lost every day in World War II.

• 36:35Fran Racioppi?

  Well, that, so that's where I was going to go with that because we lost 7,000, I think ish. I don't have the exact number off the top of my head in the global war on terror.

• 36:44Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 36:44Fran Racioppi?

  Okay. And in a day where we would have a handful, it'd be all over the news and we would be crying.

• 36:50Speaker 01

  Right.

• 36:50Fran Racioppi?

  That we've got to end the war. We lost, I was at D-Day for the 80th anniversary this year. And you stand there and you look at the beach and you say thousands were killed.

• 37:02Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 37:03Fran Racioppi?

  Thousands in a morning before the sun was fully up. And you ask do we have the will to win anymore? But why don't we cover that? Why is nobody out there showing that? Because if you were to put 200 servicemen being killed every day up on the news, the country's going to go crazy. But how come we can lose 200 people to drugs that are coming across the southern border? And nobody says anything?

• 37:26Speaker 01

  That's a good question. I have no answer for that. But essentially, if you just do fentanyl alone, 200 a day, that is a big airliner. If we crashed an airliner every day with all fatalities on board, do you think we'd stop that aircraft from flying? Absolutely.

• 37:41Fran Racioppi?

  All aircraft?

• 37:41Speaker 01

  We'd stop, yes. Somehow it gets lost in the fog. I don't think most people break it down to how many we're losing every day. But it's in our bedrooms, in our backyards, one airliner a day. If you include drug overdose and make it 300, then say you've got two mid-sized airliners a day. That is the true number. So I won't use any models because I don't want it to be associated with it. But a couple of airliners with 150 people on it every day, you would stop that from flying. So I don't understand. That's what we're losing every day in our bedrooms and our backyards.

• 38:13Fran Racioppi?

  We had the chance to sit down with Representative Tony Gonzalez, also your neighbor from Texas.

• 38:19Speaker 01

  And my predecessor is co-chair of the Four Country Caucus.

• 38:21Fran Racioppi?

  And he's got, I think it's like 800 miles. He gave me these. I do it 800, I think he told me it was 822 because he wanted to make sure.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Got the most border of any member.

• 38:30Fran Racioppi?

  But you're north of them. And so the effects of the open border policy have certainly been felt in your district and throughout Texas. And we've even said every state is a border state. I mean, we had migrants going to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

• 38:42Speaker 01

  And the fentanyl too.

• 38:43Fran Racioppi?

  Exactly. When you look at the immigration policy that over the last couple of years and the rapid change that has occurred over the last several weeks since President Trump and the administration came into office. Can you explain why there's such a dichotomy of perspectives? And why you had one group believe that you can let everybody in? And then you now have the administration come in who says, well, it's that easy to just shut it off. So I guess my question is, you know, why did we have an open border policy in the first place? And then how could it have been so easy to stop? That it was just enacted through a couple of executive orders?

• 39:26Speaker 01

  It's a good question. Strength and determination. If they know we're serious, they're going to stop. Threaten tariffs. Everybody knew that the 25% tariff on Mexico had nothing to do with goods coming in. We can survive a 25% tariff on Mexican goods. They can't. So take your pick. Do you want your economy to completely fall apart? Or do you want to secure that border? They got the point. And he's used it brilliantly and everybody, even before he was president, he started saying, we're going to do tariffs unless you do this. And then they come running and they got the point and it's worked very effectively. And I think honestly, most people, not just Americans, but people appreciate a strong leader. And that's what he has stood up to be. That's what Pete Hegseth is turning out to be.

• 40:08Speaker 01

  That's what this administration is turning out to be is show strength and a willingness to say enough. And we're serious and we'll take a little pain too, but you're going to feel it more. So make your pick.

• 40:18Fran Racioppi?

  When faced with a challenge, Green Berets adapt, overcome, and keep moving forward. Now's your chance to stand with them. Join the 1952 Society with a monthly gift of just $19.52 to provide critical medical devices for wounded, ill, and injured Green Berets. Your support fuels their recovery, helping them return to duty or continue serving their communities. A Green Beret's mission never stops. Neither should our support. Join the 1952 Society today and stand with those who stand for us.

• 40:50Fran Racioppi?

  I think we've seen that, you brought up the tariffs, and I think the tariffs are a perfect example of the negotiating power that the US economy has. And so you kind of brings you back to the conversation of you have to begin to run an effective economy that's not reliant on cash injection from foreign nations in order to continue to strengthen that.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 41:11Fran Racioppi?

  Do you think that we could have a balanced budget?

• 41:15Speaker 01

  Oh, well, that is a great question. At this point, that would take a, you would have to really carve out a lot of the mandatory spending because that's where it's gotten to is the mandatory spending. And then you got to the interest on our debt. It would take some time, but we did that in, right after World War II, when we reached 123% of GDP to debt, and then we slashed spending. I don't see this as a mirror of that right now, certainly not with the world threats on our doorstep. But we're going to have to take some pretty drastic action to get to that point because over after COVID, after the Great Recession and trillions of dollars in bailouts, it's going to be very hard to

• 41:56Speaker 01

  get to. And with natural disasters that we've been spending money on too. So yes, we can. Can we do it next year? No. I didn't have a Defense Department. So do you have the political will to do what's necessary on the mandatory spending? That remains to be seen.

• 42:11Fran Racioppi?

  Is the military ready for the next conflict?

• 42:13Speaker 01

  Yep. How many conflicts are you talking about, though? I asked General Carrillo today. I said, what are you needing and getting denied that is going to a different COCOM? Because there's a number of combatant commanders in various spheres. Yes, but we, that's why I'm grateful for what the Israelis have done to Iran, because they've taken one of those four dictators basically off the table, because they don't have any integrated air defense and we could march right into Tehran tomorrow. And that's why I'm grateful for what Ukraine has done to Russia, because that economy is teetering. Had those two countries not fought back so hard and so decisively, then I think we'd be having a different conversation today. But of those four dictators, North Korea, Iran, and Russia and China, two of those dictators have been

• 42:59Speaker 01

  Deeply weakened. And so I think that does give us the opportunity to make sure that Xi Jinping knows he can't win in the South China Sea and Russia is floundering because they're getting weapons from Iran and North Korea. And of course, North Korea, who knows? But yes, we, based on the alliances we have, the allies we have, at this point, yes, we would win. And I have no doubt about that.

• 43:22Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, one more question for you about leadership.

• 43:24Speaker 01

  All right.

• 43:25Fran Racioppi?

  We have a tremendous amount of experience when we come out of the military. I call it perspective. Being in the military because of the experiences that we've had, whether it be leading soldiers, whether it be in challenging situations, whatever that may be, whether that's combat or whether that's working with an ally that may not see the world the same way you do. And you've got to sit there and convince them why it's important that they do. We come into our post-service careers with a certain perspective. And we use the leadership lessons that we learned in the military in our new roles. You served in state legislature. You now are a legislator here at the federal level.

• 44:06Fran Racioppi?

  As you walk through the halls of Congress, what are the lessons that you take from your military service to apply to your job?

• 44:12Speaker 01

  Never pass up the opportunity to shut up. That's number one. When you are willing to be in receive mode and learn from others, they will say, that is a way for them to understand, he's interested in learning. And I have, sometimes that's a struggle, especially in Congress, to take that tack. But believe it or not, we don't know everything when we get elected to Congress. So I have a lot of learning to do. And I think that by training myself to listen, I have plenty of opinions. We've talked for 50 minutes and there's no shortage of those. But when I do go into hearings, I try to listen as effectively as possible to all arguments. And that way that they know that I'm willing to listen and you can work with somebody who's willing to listen. That's the first one. And then show that I'm on time, timeliness. You show up on time here, you're way ahead of the game.

• 44:57Speaker 01

  If you're five minutes early to whatever conference meeting we've got and the leadership sees you sitting there, ready to go at the top of the hour, they get that. And most military members do that. And so it sets the Apart very, very quickly, but also it's about the mission, the servant's heart, the willingness to sacrifice and sometimes take those difficult votes lets them know that you are in it for something greater than yourself. And I think all the people that I served with on the four country caucus, they have shown that in the past to be willing to do that.

• 45:26Fran Racioppi?

  Well, I think America remains that shining city on the hill that rung.

• 45:32Speaker 01

  So do I.

• 45:32Fran Racioppi?

  Talked about, you know, I think that, you know, our best days are ahead of us. I do not agree with the rhetoric of.

• 45:38Speaker 01

  Did you hear me say that?

• 45:39Fran Racioppi?

  No.

• 45:40Speaker 01

  Cause I say that, ask anybody on my staff, I'm a Reagan Republican, we're the city on the hill and our brightest days are ahead. So you're ready for Congress, sir. Run Fran, run. But you do have to be patient and understand. I think the hardest thing to learn here is you can't change the institution. It has been built over 250 years and apply yourself it like Green Berets, embed yourself in the community, get to know them, achieve their trust, and then there's no stopping how far you can go.

• 46:07Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah. Well, I'm glad that we have great leaders like yourself who are doing that, those around you, the members of the four country caucus.

• 46:12Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 46:12Fran Racioppi?

  Thanks again to your staff for setting this up. We're finishing up day one. We've got one more day to go and I look forward to getting back in here tomorrow. And I thank you so much.

• 46:20Speaker 01

  Thanks for coming in Fran. Appreciate it. Thanks.

• 46:25Fran Racioppi?

  American Jedbergs went on to form the foundation of the United States Special Forces and the Special Activities Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thanks for listening to the Jedburgh Podcast, an official program of the Green Beret Foundation. I'm your creator and host, Fran Richo. Join us next week for a new episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check us out on YouTube for full episodes, highlights and other long and short form content. If you like what you heard, give us a like and leave a review. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, extra threads. Send your comments and inquiries to Fran at Jedburgh Podcast.com. As former members of Special Operations Forces, the Jedburgh Media Channel and the Green Beret Foundation remain committed to supporting all generations of US Army Special Forces

• 47:08Fran Racioppi?

  and their families. Thanks for joining us on this episode. How you prepare today determines success tomorrow.