Paul Ryan Blames Defense Budget for Military Accidents

Author Lawrence J. Korb discusses why House Speaker Paul Ryan and his peers should not have supported large increases in defense spending on the basis that it will eliminate noncombat deaths.

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When he announced he wouldn’t run for reelection, House Speaker Paul Ryan cited his role in increasing defense spending as one of his two major accomplishments (the other was cutting taxes). The speaker justified these massive hikes in the FY2018 defense budget—which brought total defense spending to $700 billion—by referencing the tragic deaths of 17 sailors on the Navy destroyers USS Fitzgerald and USS John McCain, as well as two Navy airmen in an F/A-18 crash off of Key West and seven servicemen in a March helicopter crash in Iraq.

The above excerpt was originally published in The American Conservative. Click here to view the full article.

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