The United States spends more on its military than any other nation on the planet by a large margin. Indeed, we spend nearly as much as the combined military budgets of all the world powers. Given the nation’s fiscal challenges, combined with the fact that we’ve already ended one major war and are winding down another, it’s not surprising that sensible voices believe it’s time to scale back the Pentagon budget.
That includes, by the way, officials at the Pentagon. U.S. military leaders have proposed cuts of nearly a half-trillion dollars over the next decade, which defense officials and national security experts believe can be made without increasing the nation’s vulnerabilities or undermining our ability to fight if necessary. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, for example, has already heartily endorsed the budget cuts.
With this in mind, it was rather striking to see Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the right-wing chairman of the House Budget Committee, suggest yesterday that U.S. military leaders are not to be trusted.
“We don’t think the generals are giving us their true advice,” Ryan said during a forum on the budget sponsored by the National Journal. “We don’t think the generals believe their budget is really the right budget.” […]
He went on to say that while there were certainly inefficiencies that could be reduced in the Pentagon’s budget, fighting wars in the Middle East and a “dangerous world” necessitated keeping defense spending level.
Ryan was specifically asked yesterday, “You don’t believe the generals?” The congressman replied, “What I believe is this budget does hollow out defense. I believe this budget goes beyond where we should go to keep people safe.”
Ryan added that his budget plan, unlike the plan endorsed by U.S. military leaders, counts an “honest Pentagon budget.”
Even for Ryan, this takes an enormous amount of chutzpah.
Let’s unpack this a bit, because it’s important to understand how ridiculous it is.









