Christmas came early for the Pentagon (and Lockheed Martin.) Congress went all out in their spending bill, budgeting even more money and supplies than DOD requested.
No, you read that right. The Pentagon will be receiving about $3 billion more than they asked for, and $1 billion more than last year’s spending levels, for a total $490.1 billion base budget.
Keep in mind that the Pentagon hasn’t successfully produced an audit, ever.
Here are some of the bonus stocking-stuffers Congress threw in, as reported by Politico and the Military Times: $240 million to purchase four more Air Force F-35 fighter jets than requested (The most expensive military plane ever built, which recently went up in flames, had to be pulled out of commission—its thirteenth grounding over security concerns since 2007—and “can’t turn, can’t climb, can’t run.”) $1.5 billion for 15 Boeing EA-18G Growlers. $1 billion more for an amphibious transport ship. Extra funding to “enhance” equipment for the National Guard and Reserve.
And let’s not forget funding for modernizing AH-64 Apache helicopters, armored vehicles like the Stryker armored fighting vehicle by General Dynamics and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle by by BAE Systems, and a little extra something for improving the Raytheon missile defense system.
They’ll also get $63.7 billion for R&D, a $700 million increase from 2014. The list goes on.
How did Congress get so generous? Military commanders can send Congress “unfunded requirements” or “wish lists” outside of the official budget request, which is overseen by the Office of Management and Budget.
For a time, the Obama administration tried to trim these unfunded requirements out, so that all requests went through the official process.
Those lean days appear to be over, which Politico suggests signals Obama’s loss of power in the White House.
The Pentagon’s massive budget already makes up almost half of all discretionary spending approved by Congress. Despite a supposed requirement to file a financial statement passed in the 1990s, the Pentagon has never produced an audit. It’s categorized as “high risk” by the GAO for being “one of the few federal entities that cannot accurately account for its spending or assets.”
When Congress is throwing so much extra cash at you, who can keep track?
Mercatus’ Veronique de Rugy has more background on DOD spending trends at Reason:
As with other parts of the federal government, health care and pension costs for Defense workers are well on their way to bankrupting us all.
