The Budget Deal Gives the Pentagon Just As Much Money As It Got During the Iraq War

[wavesofeuphoria]

The Budget Deal Gives the Pentagon Just As Much Money As It Got During the Iraq War
Once again, tea partiers and Democrats agree not to mess with the military.

—By Dave Gilson

Today's the last day for Congress to pass a budget deal and avert a government shutdown. Part of the $1.1 trillion "Cromnibus" package is the 2015 defense budget. While there's been some wrangling over pay and benefits for service members, finalizing the Pentagon budget has been relatively uncontentious.

That's because the Pentagon is one of the few recipients of discretionary spending that most budget-slashing tea partiers and entitlement-friendly Democrats are reluctant to touch. If the current deal passes, the Pentagon's total funding in the 2015 fiscal year, including war-fighting costs, will come in at around $554 billion—close to what it got during the height of the Iraq War.

To be fair, the Pentagon is making do with less. Its total budget has shrunk more than 20 percent since it recently peaked in 2010. The bipartisan sequestration deal that went into effect in 2013 is supposed to keep it on a diet for the foreseeable future. However, those budget caps are looking more and more like irksome suggestions rather than requirements. Congress gave the military a partial reprieve from the caps last year, and even President Obama has spoken out against "the draconian cuts that are called for in sequestration."

The Pentagon's proposed 2015 base budget comes in under the spending caps, yet its 2016 budget will face tighter constraints—if lawmakers stick to them. There's already talk that the administration's next defense budget will exceed the caps by $60 billion. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the Pentagon's base budget will exceed the spending caps by more than $300 billion over the next six years.

The rest here:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/pentagon-budget-deal-charts

[newfie11]

1. Disgusting nt

[Enthusiast]

2. Good word for it.

[Scuba]

3. If we can't afford to educate our children, to heal our sick or care for our elderly ...

... just what is it the defense budget is defending?

[wavesofeuphoria]

4. The oliarchy?

More than HALF of our budget is military/defense ... I don't think the Klingon's spent that much on their military (being sarcastic - I have no knowledge of their budget)

And Obama was strong-arming Dem folks to vote for it?

[merrily]

8. Wasn't his second term the time when he was supposed to be the most liberal?

Surely after the midterms, he doesn't have much left to worry about with respect to elections.

[sabrina 1]

5. So long as this obscene amount of the people's money is

is made available to the war mongers, we will be at war.

And school lunches will be cut and efforts will continue to be made to take away money from the most vulnerable in our society, and from their OWN money, SS.

It is sickening to watch this theft.

[merrily]

7. +1 I posted my Reply 6 before I read your reply.

Though I was sarcastic and you were not, I think we were thinking along some of the same lines.

[merrily]

6. How about NSA, Homeland Security, CIA, FBI, Secret Service?

"Defense" is expensive! Food, shelter and fuel are free. Everyone knows that.

[sabrina 1]

9. Homeland Security and the CIA should be abolished.

Col. Dickerson, Powell's Chief of Staff I believe, has made the case now for the abolishment of that organization, the CIA.

Homeland Security appears to believe that it is the American people who are the enemy. See their contributions to the militarization of the Civilian Police, eg.

The very title of that organization gives me the creeps.

The NSA appears to be working more for Corporations than anything else.

Eg, they were unable to stop the Boston Bombers despite knowing about them, despite warnings from other nations, with all their data collection and storage.

But they do know the spending habits of every American.

All that is needed for a good defense of any country is a strong military AT HOME which is ready to defend the nation WHEN NECESSARY.

There is no way ANY thinking person can believe that invading countries that are not threat to this country, is 'defense'. If anything it exposes this country to more danger.

But we would need a government of the people to get these things straightened out.