I'm kind of glad we hit the land mark.

It brings attention back to one of the

biggest challenges in government. I I

always said the education, healthcare,

and debt are the three biggest

challenges to America. Uh this is a

landmark for sure. The problem is every

time we get further in debt, we've been

downgraded twice as a uh as a currency.

Uh when we reach the corruption of

social security, which is going to come

this next presidency, you'll see a real

uh uptick in the the ability to borrow

versus the interest rate. and that's

going to basically hamstring us. I don't

even know if we'll be the industry

standard at that point of currency. Uh I

I've told it several times we had

several of us about 20 of us holding out

on different uh bills. Uh but the

president a lot of times says look this

is the best bill you can get. This is

why I don't think we need a filibuster

for a budget. Now I agree. I I think we

should have a filibuster for everything

else every other law but for the budget

it's our only constitutional

responsibility. It doesn't matter if the

Republicans or the Democrats are in

charge. Whenever you have a filibuster,

it just adds pork. That's one thing we

could do that would be really easy to

reduce the deficit spending.

>> But you said, you know, the president

says, well, this is just the best bill

that you can get. Do you think he's

worried enough about the national debt?

>> I don't think anybody's worried enough

when it comes to politics. Uh I'm very

concerned that that when we actually

talk about uh what we're our future is

for Americans uh for our children when

they're paying $2 trillion in debt

servicing which is coming quickly by the

way in the next 10 years I would say

we've already doubled our debt just in

the last decade. Think about that. We

went from about 20 trillion to 40

trillion in just 10 years. Uh our

interest rates are going up because

we've been degraded as a currency. This

is a massive problem. It's going to

affect everything we fund when you only

bring in about five a little over $5

trillion in taxation and and revenue and

then you spend 7 trillion every year and

it's going up and the the disparity is

becoming greater. That's not a good sign

for the future.

>> We talk a lot about uh AI on the show

and I imagine it's something you're

talking about when you're on the

campaign trail as well when you're back

in your home district in and around

Alpharetta. Um it's become a real

political issue the building of these

data centers and I wonder sort of where

you fall on uh if the US should be going

full steam ahead building these things

if if you'd council there needing to be

more time here for communities to

consider the the impact that they might

have on them. Um what what's your

outlook on the the massive data center

build that we're seeing across this

country?

>> Well, I've toured several data centers.

I just got back from Nvidia uh a couple

weeks ago. Talked to Jensen Wang, talked

to leaders in the industry. I've talked

to community leaders, people who are

concerned. One of the things that really

worries me is actually outside

influence. We have some communities that

have 250 people show up to protest a

data center being uh built in that

community when you know there's hardly

more than that in the community. We have

people being shipped here from all over

the United States. What is the concerted

effort? Why aren't people from other

communities coming in? I think this is a

bit nefarious. I think that China or

somebody who doesn't want us to compete

with them is funding it. Uh because this

is something we do need as Americans. If

you think about the wealth, the

technology, the thing the ability to

sell things in healthcare, let's say

cancer, uh radiology, uh energy, uh it

pretty much will affect every portion of

our life. And if we don't get this

right, we will fall behind. There are

ways to do it very responsibly. By the

way, it doesn't all the data centers now

are closed loop. They don't consume

water. They recirculate it. Uh the the

energy sources, those fuel cells that

we're producing are phenomenally clean

and produce enough energy to fund them

and then some. In other words, it could

be a benefit to the community. Uh so all

the worries, all the the drummed up uh

alarmism is really bad for the future of

America. If we don't get this right, I

was just over in Ireland and talking to

uh through through the ambassador there

to the companies there. And if they

don't build dend centers and energy

sources, they will move those 70% of

their income is produced by American

headquarters in Ireland. They will move

somewhere else. That's not a good sign

for the future of business and wealth in

America. And and by the way, we can

build it on basis. That was my

suggestion to the president and to the

administration. Uh basically, you're not

going to have any protests. Uh you can

see you have plenty of land. Fort Gordon

is the cyber security headquarters.

That's a great place to build. Fort

Benning, uh Fort Hunter, all these

places just in Georgia alone. Every

state just about has a a massive base

where you have room to build these. Uh

it it wouldn't be a negative impact.

Matter of fact, it would be a very

positive uh impact. and you can actually

lease those and actually be additive to

to reduce the footprint of a base when

it comes to expenditures.

>> I mean, I'm wondering if that's

something the Pentagon or the president

is pursuing are pursuing some form of

grammar. Sorry, it's been a long week.

Um, but I also want to follow up with

you said, you know, there may be some

nefarious nature to some of these

protests. Do you have any evidence of

that? We do have polling from Gallup

that shows seven 10 seven and 10

Americans opposed data setter

construction in their neighborhoods.

>> Yeah, and I get that. But if it's in

your neighborhood, I I totally

understand if you're there from your

neighborhood, it makes sense. But what

about people when they're coming from

all over the United States? That seems a

little bit suspicious. Uh the the

articles are written, and believe me,

I've been in politics long enough to

know that uh there are a lot of

conspiracy theories out there. I think

there's a lot of misinformation on data

centers. I get it's a hot topic, but

it's up to us to educate the public on

what it is and is not. Uh people even

criticize, oh, it's just a temporary

job. Every construction job is a

temporary job until that construction is

done, then you move on to the next. It's

very good for the local economy. It's

not going to be obnoxious or loud. It's

not going to produce a heat signature

that's going to go outside of that area.

It's not going to consume water. It's

not going to detract from your energy

bills. So, what is the real information

that we need in order to make a good

decision? Uh because I think there's a

lot of misinformation out there. That's

what we need to be good at is being

proactive, being visionary rather than

reactive, and reacting to the mobs that

maybe don't have all the details.

>> What did that you sit on the Armed

Services Committee uh and there was this

announcement that the US is going to

withdraw from these military exercises

it's done with with South Korea. And I'm

curious what you make of that. You

having been in the Marines and and the

Navy. Uh is is this a step in the right

direction, do you think, or are you

somebody who who believes that those

those exercises are critical for kind of

showing American might in the Pacific?

>> I hope it's temporary. actually

participated in those exercises. I was

stationed over in Korea a few times.

Actually deployed on basically their

version of an expeditionary unit on a

ship uh doing amphibious assault

landings. Uh it was a delightful

experience. The Koreans, the rock

marines over there, the oh man are they

bad. I love those guys. Uh really

hardcore. Love training with those guys.

They see the world similarly. They have

one enemy, one fight. Their their motto

is pone which means they must win. If

they lose, they are dead. uh they

understand the fight. They see the world

similar to us. They have a similar

faith. They have a sim similar economy

structure. Uh I want to see them go

closer to us, not to other countries who

who are basically invested in communism.

That's really good for the stabilization

of that area. But I'm one of those

people that believes in integration uh

of foreign areas. They're very friendly

to us. I think that's very good for our

force projection and peace through

strength.

>> We see the USS Abraham Lincoln making

its way back to to the United States

after incredib issues.

>> Yeah. incredibly long deployment. Um,

what is your takeaway from that? Yes,

we've all seen the stories of what

conditions were like on that carrier.

Uh, is there a broader takeaway that you

have about resources, as Christina

mentions, the way that they're being

deployed right now?

>> Yeah, so you talked to the right guy.

I've been on three Marine Expeditionary

units. Uh, I've lived about two years on

on a ship. Uh, the first one I was on

was USS Tripoli. It was retired right

after our flow, so it was a really old

ship. Went dead in the water four times

in the Persian Gulf. And the the the top

of the deck was about 140 degrees. I

mean, just sitting in your room, no air

conditioning, just sweating profusely.

It was gross. Uh we had raw sewage

coming out of Thailand all over the

ship. Things happen. I mean, that's

that's the realities of this that's been

going on for decades. By the way, that

was back in the uh mid90s. Not to date

myself, uh but this is what we do. I

mean, sometimes there's hardships that

happen. Uh we are a creature of

necessity. Uh we deploy as needed, and

most crew members understand that. We,

by the way, even back then, we had crew

members try to jump off the ship uh to

commit suicide or or to make a

statement. So, this is nothing new. This

is just an ongoing issue. I understand

that that we don't want to keep people

out for longer than 6 months if

possible, but sometimes necessity

dictates.