At tonight’s Vice-Presidential debate, all eyes will be on Paul Ryan, who is well-loved in conservative circles as a fiscal hawk — except when it comes to defense. The budget is sure to come up during the Biden-Ryan faceoff, so before tuning in, give a second read to our own Laicie Olson’s piece on Ryan’s plans for defense spending, published a few weeks ago on The Truman National Security Project’s Doctrine blog.
Here’s an excerpt, as a reminder of why Ryan is not quite the fiscal conservative he claims to be:
The 99-page “Path to Prosperity” calls for boosting Pentagon spending while reducing funding for entities such as the State Department and USAID by nearly $5 billion and enacting across the board budget cuts and freezes that would result in an $11 billion cut in funding for veterans. To add insult to injury, Ryan’s budget doesn’t mention “veterans” even once in its text.
Make sure to read the rest, here.
