Explaining McCain’s Defense ‘Cut’
Sen. John McCain says the budget deal President Donald Trump reached with Democratic leaders “basically freezes last year’s funding in place, which is a cut of $52 billion” in defense spending. In fact, the deal doesn’t cut the defense budget at all.
The legislation — known as a continuing resolution — funds the federal government for the first three months of fiscal year 2018, which begins Oct. 1, at the same funding level as fiscal year 2017. So McCain is right that the deal “freezes last year’s funding in place,” but only for three months. We won’t know the size of
