Masterpiece Theater

In this episode, Chris, Bryan, and Melanie take a broad look at the administration's FY2020 defense budget request. They discuss whether or not it is the "masterpiece" that Pat Shanahan promised, and agree (!) that the budget process is in need of serious reform. They ask whether it aligns with the National Defense Strategy, what Congress (especially the Democratic House with many domestic priorities) will think of it, and how it will be paid for in a time of ever-growing deficits. Finally, Chris takes the secretary of state to task, Melanie is irritated with what's going on in higher ed, and Bryan welcomes a friend home.   Links "Defense Budget Overview: United States Department of Defense Fiscal Years 2020 Budget Request" Marcus Weisgerber, "2020 Budget Request Reveals Slow Shift Toward Great Power War," Defense One, March 2019 John McCormack, "Why Did Ben Sasse Vote to Uphold the National Emergency?" National Review, March 2019 Claude Berube, United States Naval Acadamy "Overseas Contingency Operations Spending Would Be 2nd Largest Federal Agency," Taxpayers for Common Sense, March 2019 Fred Kaplan, "Trump's Record-Setting Military Budget is Bloated, illegal, and Doomed," Slate, March 2019 Daniel Larison, "Pompeo's Obnoxious Yemen Lies," American Conservative, March 2019 Daniel Larison, "The WSJ's Despicable Defense of the War on Yemen," American Conservative, March 2019 Bridget Bowman and Simone Pathé, "Meet the 12 GOP Senators Who Voted to Terminate Trump's National Emergency," Roll Call, March 2019 "Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans," CATO Institute, March 2019 "Two Roads to War: How (and Why) America and Britain Decided to Invade Iraq," CATO Institute, April 2019 Patrick Porter, Blunder: Britain's War in Iraq, (Oxford University Press, 2019) Michael Mazarr, Leap of Faith: Hubris, Negligence, and America's Greatest Foreign Policy Tragedy, (Public Affairs, 2019) Nicholas Kristof, "This 8-Year-Old Chess Champion Will Make You Smile,"New York Times, March 2019 Samuel Abrams, "When A Student Mob Came For My Job, My College Did Not Support Me," Spectator, March 2019 Steven Elbow, "UW Student Alleging Bias in Political Science Prof's Syllabus Now Expects Class to Be Objective," Cap Times, January 2019 Ben Leonard, "Admission Scandal Rocks Higher Education," Duke Chronical, March 2019