Does Rand Paul Really Gain Anything by Pretending to be Cruzbio?

William Hartung writes:

This year, Paul made an about-face when he proposed a $190-billion increase in Pentagon spending over the next two years, a jump of about 16 percent. In an effort to maintain his reputation as a fiscal conservative, Paul called for offsetting his proposed Pentagon increase with cuts in other areas of the budget. But the goal of his proposal was clear: to shed the label of being soft on defense that his Republican rivals for the presidency have attempted to pin on him...

Campaigning as a pale reflection of the hawks who have dominated the discussion on the Republican side is unlikely to serve Paul well. His proposed Pentagon spending increase mirrors one made previously by Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and brings him into line with the rest of the Republican field. But as Nick Gillespie has noted, "To the extent he sounds more like every conservative Republican, he sounds less interesting to libertarians. I don't see what he picks up by being a version of Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio."...