Stakeout with Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL); Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ); Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY); and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

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SEN. MCCONNELL: (In progress) -- to be paid for. It will buy unmanned aerial vehicles. It will create bed space to hold people who've been caught for illegal re-entry. It passed 89 to 1. This is a great bill to put the legislation on. It's a national security issue of monumental proportions, and I expect a large vote this afternoon to appropriate $3 billion to secure our borders.

SEN. : Just one other comment on what the leader mentioned, we've spent a lot of time in the Senate debating and voting on various Iraq resolutions. Most of the Democrats in the Senate have not been willing to cut off funding for the troops. They've debated various proposals to withdraw by certain dates, to perhaps change missions and in other ways distance themselves from the administration's policy. Up to now, however, we haven't seen attempts to pull the money from the troops. The administration has said that the troops are going to need additional funding. Now Chairman Obey in the House is saying that they won't receive that funding, as far as he's concerned, until the administration changes its policy.

I hope that we're not seeing the beginning of an effort to cut off the troops by cutting off their funding, and hope our colleagues here in the Senate will not follow Chairman Obey's lead but will be supportive of the administration's efforts to support the resolution that would continue funding for the troops, either for next year or in some kind of a bridge that gets us passed these winter months. That issue will be upon us as of November 18th, and we need to see whether Democrats will cooperate with us in supporting our troops.

SEN. : We just spent three-and-a-half weeks with a defense authorization bill on the floor in which we spent virtually all of that three-and-a-half weeks talking about withdrawal from Iraq in virtually no amount of time. I'm talking about the issues that are important to the troops -- issues like pay raise for those men and women, like quality-of-life issues for the families, like making sure that we're providing the latest, most technologically advanced weapons system for those troops.

You know, I just hope that we're not about to do the same thing with respect to Defense appropriations. We've got an opportunity over the next several days to really show that we care about the troops by providing funding not only for the ongoing conflicts but for what's going to happen down the road.

Secondly, let me just say that we once again have got an opportunity to show that we're serious about securing the border. We've been through this battle with a very protracted immigration fight several weeks ago; we now have an opportunity to show that we really do intend to seal this border. I look forward to the debate on Senator Graham's amendment, an overwhelming vote to show that we truly do intend to seal that border.

Q Why is it important to deal with the supplemental before Christmas?

SEN. KYL: The military has made it very clear that the funding for the continuation of the war, actually supplying what the troops need in the field, is going to be required beyond the time of the continuing resolution that terminates November 18th, I believe it is -- 16th or 18th.

SEN. : 16th.

SEN. KYL: 16th. And that's why, if not the entire amount, then at least a bridge amount to go beyond that period is critical.

Q Senator Kyl, you mention the troops a lot. All of you mention the troops a lot. Is it your assertion that people who want to end the war, the congressional Democrats, don't support the troops; that they're opposed to the troops if they suggest that they should go -- funding mechanisms to change policy?

SEN. KYL: Well, they don't support the troops' mission. They're not enabling the troops to continue to do what they have been doing successfully, according to General Petraeus.

And to one extent, for those who actually believe that the war has been lost and that we need to begin pulling out right now -- that may be the most honest approach to implementing their point of view, but I don't believe that the vast majority of Americans believe that we have lost the war. Americans believe that, if given the proper tools, we can achieve what we need to achieve, and General Petraeus has made that clear with respect to our military right now. So I don't believe that the American people want to end this war and deny the troops the support the need by failing to fund this effort.

SEN. SESSIONS: And can I say something?

SEN. KYL: You bet.

SEN. SESSIONS: This would be welcome news in Tehran. They would really appreciate the Congress pulling the plug on what has been a successful operation to defeat al Qaeda and to empower the Iraqi people to contain Iran.

So if you want al Qaeda to come back, cut off funding. They would love for us to do this. This would be a blessing to al Qaeda, who's getting their brains beat out.

And if you want to make the president of Iran stronger, lose Iraq. That's the consequence of this decision. You can't do this in isolation. This is just not about who runs Iraq. This is about whether or not Iran gets stronger or it can be contained by a free Iraq. This is whether or not al Qaeda continues to be diminished by moderate forces in the Muslim-Islamic world, or they get to come off the map.

So to my colleagues in the House who think this is clever, you will be cheered on by America's enemies, and you will be resisted by people who know better, in the Senate.

Q But Senator, they claim that there's enough money in the pipeline or from other sources to keep it going until at least next March, that they're not stinting the troops, that they won't be cut off.

SEN. : Well, obviously they're going to make all kinds of contentions, but when you talk to the folks at the Pentagon, they're going to tell you right quick that now they are scrambling to put dollars together to defend our men and women who are on the ground today. And you know, we're having success in Iraq. And that's obviously driving the Democrats crazy. And what's their reaction to success in Iraq? To cut off funding. That's a real way to show you support your troops.

SEN. GRAHAM: Well, let's get the quote. The quote was, we're not going to fund this war until there's policy changes. So this is not a about a disagreement over how much money is necessary to March. This is a conscious effort on their part to change policy without understanding what the result of the policy change would be vis-a-vis Iran or al Qaeda. So I don't buy it one bit as an honest debate do we have to get to March. This is a less than clever effort and a dangerous effort to undermine in a military operation that's diminishing Americans' enemies, al Qaeda, and would help us contain a very real enemy in Iran.

Q How do you propose to pay for it, though? Even if you agree with the policy, how do you pay for the war?

SEN. GRAHAM: You pay for the war by winning the war. This is not an accounting exercise. How did we pay for World War II? Everybody rolled up their sleeves and did the best they could.

You know, we've cut our -- we've got more revenue at the federal level than we've had since I've been here. We've cut taxes twice. We had $750 billion more in revenue. Spending is an important issue for the American people. We're not spending their money wisely. But we're in a shooting war, and I think the best use of money by the federal government is to fight and win wars that are tied to our national interest.

Q (Off mike.)

SEN. KYL: What did you say?

Q (Off mike.)

SEN. KYL: I think we're really going to want to see some cooperation from the Democratic leadership here. And I don't think there's any plan for us to prematurely move without some understanding of what our Democratic colleagues are willing to support.

SEN. : Okay, thanks very much.

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