Orszag's war: 'Ending wars saves money'
An interesting post from budget director Peter Orszag, taking on criticism that the way the White House budgeted for the war represents a giant "gimmick," something Rep. Paul Ryan went after him for last week:
The President is committed to responsibly winding the war. I don’t do foreign policy, but I can tell you this: ending wars saves money - and so the Administration’s budget includes savings from ramping down overseas military operations over time.
Yet critics are claiming that, in calculating the amount saved by ramping down operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Administration is wrong to compare its proposed funding levels to the level in 2008-the last year in which overseas operations were fully funded. Such criticisms are inconsistent not only with common sense but also established practices of budget accounting (and even what the critics themselves have said in the past).
Orszag's key point: George H.W. Bush budgeted for a peace divident the same way, and his projections were borne out.
source: Ben Smith