a comprehensive financial audit) doesn’t even ask for all those yearly spending increases in its budget requests to Congress. Instead, the House and Senate continue to give it extra tens of billions of dollars annually. No matter that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hasthe Pentagon has all it needs to “get the capabilities… to support our operational concepts” without such sums.
Here’s the sad reality of the national security state: we taxpayers will fork over nearly a trillion and a half dollars this year in national security spending and yet the policy-making process behind such outlays will essentially remain out of our control. It would be one thing if such added funding were at least crafted in line with a carefully considered defense strategy. More often than not, though, much of it goes to multibillion dollar weapons projects being built in the districts or states of key lawmakers or for items on Pentagon wish lists . It’s unclear how such items can be “priorities” when they haven’t even made it into the Pentagon’s already enormous official budget request.
Congress understands that you have to fund the things that you feel are important. That says everything about our military as well as stuff like education, prepping for climate change, etc. The troops will protect the country as you sit in a 120 degree heat dome.