A TOUGH SELL: It will fall to Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to make the case that using the Overseas Contingency Operations account to boost military spending while cutting almost everything else does not amount to a shell game to thwart the will of Congress. Shanahan and Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee tomorrow, but yesterday’s House Budget Committee hearing with Acting OMB Director Russell Vought previewed how Democrats will respond.

“The administration uses every gimmick, alternative projection, and accounting trick in the book to disguise its true ramifications,” railed committee chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., in his opening attack on Vought. “Director Vought, you’re not even trying to hide this attempt to skirt the cap on defense funding and obscure the true cost of military operations,” Yarmuth said. “I’m sorry, but you don’t get many points for being honest about being dishonest. It doesn’t work that way. This is a gimmick, and it deserves the swift bipartisan dismissal with which it has been met.”