Analysis reveals more pork in defense bill
A new analysis by the Center for Defense Information suggests the Senate defense appropriations bill has used a sleight of hand to expand the military budget by as much as $10 billion, despite claims by senators that the measure would reduce spending.
Winslow Wheeler, a former Republican Senate staffer now with CDI, says his examination of the bill shows that appropriators moved $10.7 billion in retirement and healthcare costs to the budget of the Treasury Department. But instead of reducing the defense budget, the committee instead found new things to fund—including billions in pork. That means while the defense budget might technically shrink, overall military spending and the federal budget will rise, thanks to more defense spending.
"This is not free money," Wheeler says. "It counts in the debt, and it counts in the deficit."
The Congressional Budget Office has noted the maneuver to increase the spending cap, but Wheeler says he doubts any senator will call the Senate Appropriations Committee on the new spending.
Why not? Because much of that extra spending room has been given over to pork. The committee has publicly claimed that the new bill saves more than $800 million in procurement spending. But Wheeler's examination shows that procurement spending is going up. He claims that by shifting money from the traditional procurement budget into sections for war funding, the appropriators have squirreled away billions of dollars in increased funding. Not to mention various small regional projects that lawmakers love. The analysis also points out that the House cut more than $1 billion in funds for training soldiers—money that is now funding lawmakers' pet pork barrel projects.
"That's my take," says Wheeler. "They added some $10 billion in pork spending. . . That is real money and when you add something, you have to take something out."