Free story: How GOP defense hawks delivered a massive military budget

By Tony Bertuca / March 28, 2018 at 10:07 AM

Inside Defense has a new, in-depth look at how GOP defense hawks worked for months publicly and behind the scenes on Capitol Hill to win a historic increase in military spending.

The story of how lawmakers increased the Pentagon's budget -- despite mandatory spending caps, Washington gridlock and seemingly ascendant fiscal conservatism -- is a political odyssey set in motion before President Trump's election and guided by Congress' leading defense advocates.

The story, which was first made available to subscribers, is now free here.

When President Trump was elected in late 2016, defense advocates readied for increased spending, confident his arrival would mean far larger budgets. But for nearly the past 18 months, that prediction has faced doubts and political gridlock, as Congress continued to rely on stopgap spending measures . . .

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