Just How Big is the Defense Budget?

[Wind Dancer]

A Tutorial on How to Find the Real Numbers


By WINSLOW T. WHEELER

On Dec. 21, 2005, Congress passed a defense appropriations bill, which according to the press releases of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, and many news articles subsequently written, funded "defense spending" for the United States for the current fiscal year, 2006. The impression made by the press releases and the news articles was that the $453 billion advertised in the bill, H.R. 2863, constitutes America's defense budget for 2006.<1>

That would be quite incorrect. In fact, the total amount to be spent for the Department of Defense in 2006 is $13 billion to $63 billion more, the latter figure assuming full funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you also count, non-DOD "national defense" costs, add another $21 billion, and, if you count defense related security costs, such as homeland security, the congressional press release numbers are more than $200 billion wrong.

Having observed, and in past years participated in, the obscuration of just how much the United States actually spends for defense, this author believes it would assist the debate over the defense budget in this country by identifying its actual size. The "defense spending" bill enacted in December had the title, "Making appropriations to the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006 and for other purposes." It was a little heavy on those "other purposes" <2> and it did not comprise all the money the Defense Department received and will receive for 2006.

To peer through the opaqueness of congressional defense appropriations, it is necessary to run through the numbers; all the numbers. The first step is to understand the "defense spending" bill, H.R. 2863, as enacted:

* Division A of the bill appropriated $453.3 billion, but not all of it for DOD. $522 million went to the CIA for unclassified "intelligence community management" and to the Coast Guard. This makes the DOD total in Division A $452.8 billion.<3>

* Division B, Title I, Chapter 1 of the bill adds to DOD $4.4 billion for its expenses to rescue and relieve civilians and to undo damage to DOD contractors from Hurricane Katrina.

* Chapter 7 of Division B adds another $1.4 billion to rebuild DOD facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

* Division B, Title II, Chapter 2 adds $130 million for DOD work for protection from the threat of the Avian Flu pandemic.

* Division B, Title III, Chapter 2 cuts the DOD budget by $80 million in rescissions (cancelled spending). More importantly,

Chapter 8 in this title cuts DOD, and all other federal spending, except the Department of Veterans Affairs and "emergency" spending, by one percent "across the board." The cut is mandated to occur in every single program of the affected accounts, nothing is exempted. The reduction to DOD is $4.0 billion. The actual total for DOD in the bill is $454.8 billion, over a billion more than what the appropriations committees implied.

But that's not all for the Defense Department's budget. Add $12.2 billion for military construction.

For reasons of politics and jurisdiction, Congress appropriates money for the Defense Department in two separate bills: the Department of Defense Appropriations bill and the Military Construction Appropriations bill -- which these days is also wrapped in with other spending, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs. The "MilCon" bill funds military bases in the states and districts of almost every member of Congress.

-more-

http://www.counterpunch.org/wheeler01192006.html


We could feed, house and provide medical care for the poorest on this planet.

Call me a dreamer!

Sigh.........

[sarcasmo]

1. The war budget is as big as these warmongers want it to be.

[Wind Dancer]

2. Exactly!

These figures don't include the missing 1.7 trillion that Rummy has "lost".