THE DAMAGE IS BEING DONE: The agreement announced this week to keep funding the government through another continuing resolution for another five weeks averts a disruptive government shutdown, but it deepens the Pentagon’s budget hole in way that may soon be impossible to reverse, according to the top Repoublican on the House Armed Services committee.

A bill to extend the stop-gap CR until Dec. 20, is expected to come to a vote this week, which Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry called “disappointing and troubling.”