We are told that Senator Mitch McConnell invited the Rand Corporation’s Commission on the National Defense Strategy to brief the Senate Republican conference lunch yesterday.

That group’s most recent report openly calls for massive spending and tax hikes:

Given the severity of the threats, the FY 2027 and later budgets for all elements of national power will require spending that puts defense and other components of national security on a glide path to support efforts commensurate with the U.S. national effort seen during the Cold War…

The Cold War demanded a national mobilization for military service, an economy geared more toward production for national security, and a unity of effort across government (including Congress) behind shared security missions that are missing today. Defense spending in the Cold War relied on top marginal income tax rates above 70 percent and corporate tax rates averaging 50 percent.

This is Reaganism in reverse.  It was Reagan’s CUTTING those 70 and 50% tax rates that fueled the 1980s economic boom that played the vital role in winning the Cold War – without firing a shot. How would disabling the U.S. economy with higher tax rates increase American national security?

This report is particularly boneheaded in not understanding that unlike in the 1960s and 1970s, the most important global power is economic – not military.

We hope this Rand pitch received a dismissive reception from Senate Republicans.