Trump's end run on defense spending

[DonViejo]

Unless both parties can negotiate a deal to lift the spending caps, it could mean a quick demise for the military's ambitious investment plans.

By CONNOR O’BRIEN 02/24/2019 07:04 AM EST

President Donald Trump is preparing to ask Congress for yet another increase in defense spending in the coming weeks. But his plan would evade federal budget limits by stashing nearly a quarter of that money in an off-the-books account — and both Democrats and Republicans say it won’t fly in Congress.

The White House plans to stuff as much as $174 billion of its $750 billion request for national defense for the coming fiscal year into a special war fund, according to reports, allowing the administration to maintain its long-sought military buildup without violating a 2011 law aimed at reining in the deficit.

The gimmick is especially striking given that Trump budget chief Mick Mulvaney once fought to limit the very same war account, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations fund.

Lawmakers in both parties object to relying so heavily on what budget hawks have long derided as a Pentagon slush fund. Unless both parties can negotiate a deal to lift the spending caps, it could mean a quick demise for the military's ambitious investment plans, which got a two-year boost last year under a bipartisan deal that raised spending for the military as well as other government agencies.

"It's definitely a non-starter,” House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) told POLITICO. “It would be an insult to the process to do that."

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/24/trump-defense-congress-pentagon-funding-1188540

[Vinca]

1. I don't see how they can authorize money for anything since Don views it all as a piggy bank.

Give the military money and Don will move it to his pet project account.

[Achilleaze]

2. When republicans put a five-time draft-dodging casino hustler in charge

of our military, they disgraced themselves and they basically invited a deeply indebted russian-pwned assclown bigmouth to totally screw America's Armed Forces, and our national security.

Shame. Shame on them.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. How can The Pentagon *budget* for anything from this point on?

They can make their allocations and budgets, even with pork, and know that the CIC will rob them of any funds for his ongoing "National Emergency". How do you pay for stuff you've bought materials for, for services you've contracted with someone taking away your money at any given time?