Best Defense
Ted Cruz Calls for Return to Bush-Era Military Spending
The Texas senator also advocates increasing the size of the military's active duty troops.
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U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who backed restraints on government intelligence programs and once voted for a plan to reduce military spending, laid out an ambitious plan on Monday to return defense outlays to the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Cruz's plan to spend 4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product would have meant about $718 billion on military spending last year, about 23 percent more than the actual figure, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. Defense outlays were $583 billion in 2015, or about 3.2 percent of GDP.