The Trump administration’s long awaited “skinny budget”, officially named “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again”, has arrived. It confirms the $54 billion increase in defense, and proposes to add $30 billion to this year’s (fiscal 2017) budget. It provides a description of what the Trump administration hopes to achieve in defense… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee thinks President Trump’s 2018 spending plan is dead on arrival and has already gone to the Budget Committee to get a much bigger defense budget. Mac Thornberry also doesn’t want defense increases offset by steep cuts to the Coast Guard or State Department, as Trump proposed. Thornberry… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Can Congress close the gap between the $603 billion President Trump wants for defense and the $640 billion pro-defense legislators say is necessary for 2018? Yes, we can, says Rep. Joe Wilson, new chairman of the House readiness panel. “I support (House Armed Services) chairman Mac Thornberry and (Senate Armed Services chairman) John McCain,” he… Keep reading →

UPDATED CAPITOL HILL: House and Senate conferees have agreed to an almost $619 billion defense budget that stops steep cuts in the US Army, eliminates 110 generals and admirals, makes US Cyber Command independent, and cuts the Pentagon’s most powerful position in two. The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017 — which began… Keep reading →

The verdict from think tanks and commentators is in: Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), the much-criticized war funding account, should move to the base budget because of abuses and a lack of transparency. As a matter of theory, such a move would be good government. OCO deflects hard choices and distorts the budget process. In the… Keep reading →

Should war funds be used to help the military patch gaps in its regular budget? It sounds like a technical issue, but the ongoing debate has turned into a battle royale, with a new scuffle breaking out just last week. It’s a slugfest featuring bad ideas, even worse ideas and a healthy dose of hypocrisy,… Keep reading →

As the end of the fiscal year approaches at the Department of Defense (DoD), teams at most defense organizations are working hard to spend all the funds in the Pentagon’s day-to-day operating budgets, which are available for use only during the ourrent fiscal year. To do otherwise, they fear, would suggest that not all available funds… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Congress has returned after a week of uncommonly beautiful weather for Washington in late August. But, with all the other miseries that Congress has wrought upon the American people in the last few years, lawmakers appear to have brought the hot and muggy weather back with them. What else might they have brought back? Could… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Whoever wins the White House in November will still be hobbled by the spending limits in the Budget Control Act, warned fiscal expert Todd Harrison. Whether BCA goes away, he said, depends much less on whether Trump or Clinton wins, and much more on who controls Congress — above all on whether Reagan defense… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: Congress will pass the annual defense bill, and that bill must increase defense spending, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said this morning. While Rep. Mac Thornberry was characteristically cautious about details, he made those goals clear enough to the audience at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “The bottom line is we’re… Keep reading →