One of Congress' top Republicans says that the Pentagon's top generals are lying to his colleagues. His evidence: a refusal to believe that they actually support the Obama administration's defense budget. The Pentagon is, as you might expect, displeased by the implication.
"We don't believe the generals are giving us their true budget," Rep. Paul Ryan, the House of Representative's budget chairman, told a National Journal forum in Washington on Thursday.
Two things stand out about the accusation. First, Republicans usually fall over themselves to genuflect before the military. Second, accusing the Joint Chiefs of Staff of lying usually requires some kind of evidence. But Ryan didn't pull out the generals' "true budget" from his coat pocket or anything. Instead, he merely criticized the budget, calling it full of "smoke and mirrors" and saying it wasn't "strategy-driven."
Ryan is entitled to his opinion about the wisdom of the defense budget. Certainly many of his colleagues don't believe, for instance, that it represents a responsible request for the Navy.
But the Pentagon has a bone to pick with Ryan's presumption that just because he doesn't like the budget, the generals secretly don't, either.
"The secretary of defense has been very clear with the military leadership in this department that they should provide independent military advice and be as straight-forward as possible with members of Congress. That is a solemn obligation," said George Little, the Pentagon press secretary. "We value Congress' oversight role, and the secretary expects honest straight-forward input from our military leadership, and he believes that's precisely what they do on a regular basis, time and time and time again."
On the other hand, if Ryan has perfected the ability to extract the true secrets of a man's heart, maybe he can help the Air Force develop the mind-reading drones it wants. The generals would definitely support a budget increase for that.
