On this Roundtable episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast, sponsored by Bell, our guests are Dov Zakheim, PhD, former DoD comptroller, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Dr Gordon Adams, the senior White House budget official for national security during the Clinton administration who is now a distinguished fellow at the Quincy Institute and the Stimson Center as well as an American University professor emeritus, Byron Callan of the independent equity research firm Capital Alpha Partners, Michael Herson, President and CEO, American Defense International and Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute.

Topics:

— House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith’s new panel to assess national industrial capabilities

— Update on President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package

— Partisanship and the Jan. 6 investigation

— Outlook for Neera Tanden’s confirmation as director of the Office of Management and Budget and possible alternatives should her nomination be rejected by lawmakers

— OMB guidance to government departments, “passback” and defense budget expectations 

— Growing inflation concerns on world markets and impact on spending

— Key takeaways from USAF chief Gen. CQ Brown’s conversation with AEI’s Mackenzie Eaglen

— Mounting pressure on the F-35 Lightning fighter as Pentagon seeks leverage on the program

— US air strike on Iraqi Iran-backed militia that attacked American bases last week

— Implications of US intelligence report on the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi on US-Saudi relations

— Update on planned US sale of F-35 fighters to UAE

— New Quincy Institute report on responsible statecraft