Here at TAPPED, we were never particularly impressed with Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal, which some hailed as a beacon of conservative intellectual integrity. While it does deal frankly with conservative ideas about the budget -- namely, altering Social Security and Medicare beyond recognition -- it also pulled revenue figures out of the air and didn't end up reducing the deficit as much as President Obama's plan.
Nonetheless, it appears that today, Ryan said something totally sensible while appearing on a radio show:
HOST: What about on the military side of things as well, do we not have to cut back on military spending as well?
RYAN: Yeah, I think within it you have to prioritize. Now obviously, we've got troops over in Afghanistan and they need everything, every piece of equipment they need. But there are lots of areas, I just had a hearing on this, there are lots of areas for waste to get out of it. Like, the procurement budget is completely out of control. The Pentagon's budget itself is not working right, so there are billions of dollars of waste you can get out of the Pentagon, lots of procurement waste. We're buying some weapons systems I would argue you don't need anymore.
You know the current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, he's going a pretty good job of identifying obsolete weapons systems that are costing tens of billions of dollars that aren't needed. So, yes, there is waste in the Pentagon.
Indeed. Will Ryan be singing the same tune the next time the administration comes under fire for cutting waste in the Defense budget?
-- Tim Fernholz
