To deal with the reductions mandated by the BCA, Obama and the U.S. military leadership developed a new defense strategy that the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff publicly supported in testimony they gave before Congress. But after listening to their testimony, Rep. Ryan said that he did not think "the generals [were] giving us their true advice" regarding the Obama budget. Essentially he accused them of lying -- an accusation that General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he found personally offensive. Ryan went on to say that Obama's FY 2013 budget compelled the Pentagon to create a budget-driven strategy, not a strategy-driven budget.
To say the least, Ryan's comments about Obama's defense plan were disingenuous, given his central role in bringing about the defense cuts. Ryan not only voted for the BCA, which mandated the cuts in the first place, but, as noted by the Project on Defense Alternatives, his own budget plan called for an FY 2013 defense budget of $554 billion, a mere 0.7 percent difference from Obama's supposedly "decimating budget." Ryan argued that Obama's defense plan would call into doubt America's "unquestioned ability to defeat any foe." But from FY 2014-17 (encompassing Obama's second or Romney's first term), Ryan's own budget plan would spend only $45 billion or 2 percent more on national defense than Obama's plan. Of course, you won't hear that on the GOP campaign trail.
However, unlike Obama's proposal, Ryan's plan does undermine our national security by slashing the other pillars of our national security, like funds for international affairs. Specifically, Ryan's budget would cut the international affairs budget from its current level of $47.8 billion to $38.3 billion over the next five years, a nominal reduction of 20 percent and a real reduction of 30 percent. This devastation of the non-military tools of foreign policy goes against the advice of military leaders like Admiral Mike Mullen, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who argued that foreign policy is still too dominated by the Department of Defense. To put this in perspective, Ryan's approximately $10 billion in cuts would equal the entirety of what we spent in 2012 on all diplomatic and consular programs or all international security assistance. The cuts could also be accommodated by completely eliminating USAID -- nine times over. Experts acknowledge that the modern military relies on the regional and linguistic expertise of State Department and USAID personnel for many core missions. Such cooperation would be crippled by Ryan's budget, further militarizing our foreign policy.
Ryan was hypocritical in voting for the BCA and then criticizing the president and the Pentagon for abiding by it, but that's not where his responsibility for this impasse ends. Ryan was also a member of the Bowles-Simpson National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which recommended cutting projected defense spending by $973 billion over the next decade, twice the amount mandated by the BCA. Although Ryan did not endorse the Commission's findings, that was because the final report included new revenues (i.e., tax increases). Ryan never mentioned defense cuts as being problematic. And he has actually criticized Obama for failing to embrace the non-revenue sections of the Commission's findings.
Now, while Rep. Ryan's plan may seem like a bad idea, it pales in comparison to the vague promises made by Gov. Romney. The Republican presidential candidate has pledged to set the Pentagon base budget (not counting war funding) "at a floor of 4 percent of GDP," which, adjusting for inflation, would result in $2.3 trillion in added spending over the next decade compared to the plan presented to Congress by the Obama administration -- and, interestingly, $2.1 trillion more than Rep. Ryan advocated. Gov. Romney has not elaborated on what specific threats prompt him to call for this huge military buildup, which would take the defense budget, in constant dollars, to levels not seen since the Second World War.
Instead of criticizing Obama's defense cuts, Republicans should focus more on the difference between Romney and Ryan's defense plans. After all, the difference between Romney and Ryan's spending plans is ten times greater than the difference between Ryan and Obama's budget. But what's $2 trillion among friends?
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