them. but i think also his recent decision to pull troops out of syria rather abruptly which seems to have cost him the defense secretary. i think that has to counted among the top setbacks of the year. the one other would be how little congress really accomplished in its last chance for republican policy for several years now. paul: well, wait a minute. didn t they do the budget deal with the two year budget deal that got defense spending up, which you fought for very hard as i recall in our council and i think rightly so. the cost was a lot of domestic spending but they got a lot more military spending. they did, paul. it s a two year bump. it s not anything off the 3% of gdp that s now the norm. also, i think if it doesn t continue through the next budget caps deal with democrats running congress narks it will end up being pretty modest in what it will buy and sus dane fo sustaie