History will be kind in recording the tenure of Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as speaker of the House of Representatives, but not abundantly so.
After all, Ryan has failed in his primary ambition: reforms to address the nation’s catastrophic debt trajectory. Here, Ryan was unable to persuade the president of the necessity of entitlement reform, nor to mobilize a Republican caucus toward hard choices, nor to find bipartisan compromise with a Democratic Party devoted to debt.
Yet history will remember two of his major accomplishments: his role in passing tax reform and his help in restoring the U.S. military to a position of strength. The last one being the more important.
Don’t believe me? Then look around the world. Look at China’s global campaign to displace U.S. democratic system of international order with imperial militarism. Look at Russia’s effort to fragment NATO and foster feudalism. Look at the continuing geopolitical threat posed by terrorist groups like ISIS and the Lebanese Hezbollah. Look at the North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile program and Iran’s imperial ambition to abolish democratic civil society in the Middle East.
Effective deterrence to and pushback against these challenges requires a military with dominant capabilities across the spectrum of warfare. But while the Pentagon must become far more efficient in carrying out its solemn responsibility, it also needs significant resources.
And there’s no question that President Barack Obama’s defense cuts jeopardized U.S. military capabilities. Our research and development programs suffered, for example, in the field of long-range conventional missile capabilities. Our power projection forces were consigned to ports and air bases because of an insufficiency of funding. Our training budgets were shrunk to save money for urgent operational needs.
But for all its other ills, the most recent budget deal, signed to much understandable concern from conservatives, also gave the military tens of billions dollars in additional funds. Focused under Defense Secretary Mattis’ realist strategy, these new resources will strengthen national security.
Without Paul Ryan, however, authorizing that new funding would not have been possible. He corralled the GOP caucus to get behind the legislation and put the nation’s security first.
As he heads home to Wisconsin in January, Ryan should take pride in making the American people safer.
