Senate set to approve record Pentagon budget

[LibertyorDeath]

Cox News Service

WASHINGTON | By Friday, the Senate is expected to authorize a record-breaking $648 billion in defense spending for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Even adjusted for inflation, the Pentagon budget for the coming year would be the largest tab for national defense since the end of World War II.

Driving the increase is the continuing war in Iraq, where more than 3,610 U.S. troops have been killed and 26,700 wounded, according to Pentagon figures.

Adding the cost of continuing the fight and long-term costs, such as taking care of wounded and disabled veterans and the toll exacted on the U.S. economy, the total cost of the war could reach well beyond $2 trillion, according to a study last year by two scholars at Harvard and Columbia universities.

A June analysis by the Congressional Research Service put the cost of the war through 2008 at $567 billion.



http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/194233.html

[shraby]

1. If that's what they call the defense appropriation

bill, Senator Reid just took it off the table..won't be voted on at all until the GOP comes to it's senses and allows a vote with a simple majority on the Levin-Reed amendment to the bill.

[Jersey Devil]

2. No, he took the "authorization" bill of the table, not the "appropriations" bill

TPM Cafe has updated its story:

It should be noted that the Defense authorization bill doesn't have to pass in order for the Defense appropriations bill to become law. While the authorization bill set priorities for things like weapons systems in the defense budget, only the appropriations bill actually funds those priorities -- and, unlike what we said earlier it's not strictly necessary to pass the authorization first, though it is customary.

In short, from the perspective of Pentagon operations, the lack of an authorization bill "isn't a problem, period, as long as an appropriations bill is passed," says Steve Koziack of the Center on Strategic and Budgetary Priorities.

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jul/18/breaking_reid_yanks_defense_authorization_bill_to_force_gops_hand

[mmonk]

3. But doesn't the authorization have to pass?

[Jersey Devil]

4. I would think so, but if TPM Cafe is right, then

all the authorization bill does is set first priorities for spending under the appropriations bill. I would guess that if no priorities are set by Congress then the money could be spent on anything without consideration of what should be spent first. In effect, the executive branch and the military would have a free pass to spend it on anything they want.

[mmonk]

9. Kind of like the way its been going.

Depressing.

[mmonk]

10. dup

[LibertyorDeath]

5. Thanks for that clarification Jersey Devil

[Raven]

6. So, is the bill that Reed tabled just another raft of Democratic BS?

Is the Appropriations Bill the one that really stops the war and the other bill just wondow dressing?

[LibertyorDeath]

7. Looks that way

"In short, from the perspective of Pentagon operations, the lack of an authorization bill "isn't a problem, period, as long as an appropriations bill is passed," says Steve Koziack of the Center on Strategic and Budgetary Priorities."

[gkhouston]

8. going back to the OP,

it said the Senate is expected to authorize the funding this week, not appropriate it. IIRC, the actual appropriating doesn't happen until closer to the start of the actual fiscal year. I think that the authorizing stage is where everyone gets to have a hissy over how the money "should" be spent, and the appropriating stage is when they stop dickering over money with choo-choo trains on it and start talking about actual currency. Since FY08 starts on 1 October 2007, it's early days yet. I wouldn't be surprised if Reid has a series of maneuvers planned to delay the actual appropriations until after September because some Republicans might be playing a "wait and see" game until then.