Epic Fail

Flashback: Paul Ryan Says Joint Chiefs Are Dishonest

In March of this year the pentagon debuted their budget request for fiscal 2013 which included the cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act (the debt ceiling deal).

The Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed their satisfaction with the budget proposal, but Representative Paul Ryan accused them of lying about their satisfaction.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., claimed Thursday that senior U.S. military officials and commanders were being dishonest in their budget requests to Congress.

“We don’t believe the generals are giving us their true budget,” Ryan said at the National Journal Live Budget Policy summit, adding, “I think there’s a lot of budget smoke and mirrors in the Pentagon’s budget.”

Despite the Pentagon's apparent acceptance of the proposed budget, Paul Ryan insisted that Pentagon funding be restored to its original levels and for the cost of doing so be made up for with additional cuts to social programs.

The cuts to defense spending included in the Budget Control Act were approved by both parties.

Remember? Speaker John Boehner "got 98 percent of what [he] wanted."

Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, responded to Paul Ryan several days after he made the accusations and stood by his testimony.

“There’s a difference between having someone say they don’t believe what you said versus … calling us, collectively, liars,” Gen. Dempsey told reporters aboard a U.S. military aircraft after a four day visit to Latin America. ”My response is: I stand by my testimony. This was very much a strategy-driven process to which we mapped the budget.”

Paul Ryan eventually walked back his statement after thoroughly embarrassing himself.

I'm sure the Joint Chiefs are thrilled by the idea that a man who called them lairs could be next in line to the presidency.