White House threatens to veto defense budget
The Obama Administration is stomping it’s feet and holding it’s breath until it’s collective face turns blue because the Defense Budget doesn’t do what they want it to do – screw the troops and retirees, according to the Army Times;
A veto of a $512.5 billion defense funding bill was threatened Monday by the White House budget office, not so much because of complaints about the level of defense spending but because the Obama administration doesn’t want military spending to rob money from other federal programs.
Additionally, the White House complains the House version of the 2014 defense appropriations bill is too generous with military pay, not generous enough with pay for federal civilian workers, and doesn’t include administration-proposed cost-cutting measures such as base closing and raising Tricare health fees for military retirees.
I’m sure there are things that could be cut out of the House bill, since it’s their practice to seed a bill with giveaways to certain Congressional districts, but instead of targeting those, the Administration is complaining about retiree health care and troops’ pay – mostly because there aren’t enough votes against them to have an impact. It’s easier to cut personnel costs than it is to tell a district they’re not getting any government-funded orders at the local defense manufacturer.
The House bill, scheduled to be debated and passed this week, represents reduction of about $5.1 billion less than the pre-sequester defense budget for 2013 and is about $3.4 billion less than the Obama administration’s request. When sequestration is taken into account, the proposed budget is $28.1 billion more than current spending, according to the House Appropriations Committee.
Also included in the bill is $85.8 billion for war-related contingency funds.
War? What war?
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Military issues, Veterans Issues
Budget? What budget?
The last budget was passed at the end of the Bush Administration! We’ve been on a Continuing Resolution ever since.
Enlighten ne, please.
Hmmmmmm, $512 billion out of a budget of………how many trillions? Yeah, I can see defense is a HUGE Albatross in the budget. And; what are these “other” federal programs they speak of?
So someone who has ALWAYS gotten whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it is NOT getting his way any more?
And he’s unhappy? Oooooh, what a shame!
Well, I guess reality stinks after all, doesn’t it?
AAAAWWWWW, what about the (at least) tens of millions B. Hussein 0bama has spent on his trips and vacations? Let’s face it, Veterans don’t vote liberal, so B. Hussein 0bama & Co. want to spit on us as much as they can!!
OT–correct. DoD spending accounts for under 20 percent of the federal budget. It’s a constitutionally mandated function under Article I, Section 8.
Contrast this with the nearly 70 percent of the federal budget which goes for “human resources” spending, meaning welfare, Social Security, HHS, etc., none of which are constitutionally mandated functions of government.
Yeah, those troops are getting living off the fat of the land with that WHOPPING 1.0 percent payraise Prezzy O’Choom wants to give them!
Maybe he can skip a weekend at Martha’s Vineyard, Sun Valley, Vail, NYC, Chicago, etc., to help out. Oh wait, silly me–sacrifice is for chumps!
This administration can’t go away fast enough.
Old Trooper: the critical figure to look at isn’t the budget. Rather, the critical figure to look at is Federal expenditures. As I recall, two of the largest programs on which the Federal government spends our tax $$$ are Social Security and Medicare. They’re “off budget”, but they’re still funded by taxes. (And yes, libidiots: FICA collections are NOT “insurance premiums”; they’re freaking taxes. Don’t believe me? See what happens if you refuse to pay them.)
A couple of years ago, Federal outlays were approximately $4 TRILLION (That’s 4,000 x $1 billion). I’m reasonably certain that Federal expenditures haven’t gone down in the last couple of years.
Defense isn’t among the two Federal programs any more. Those two are Social Security and Medicare. And remember: that “trust fund” nonsense is mere accounting fiction. Who will eventually pay for money “loaned” by the Soc Sec and Medicare trust funds to the Federal government? The Federal government. Where will the money to do that come from? Out of future Federal tax revenues – or from new borrowing which merely adds to Federal debt and increases the size of the Federal debt, which is already past dangerous levels for long-term financial stability.
Apu the Hindu may well have been right.
I think it’s kind of simple.
“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” — Nietzche
EVery financial sign points to a belly-up bankruptcy coming. If Bernanke/the FRB stops buying Treasuries, ka-boom. Bernanke’s terms is ending before too long. If ka-boom happens, who do you think will get blamed for it?
Not us.
The mainstream media talking point on any potential veto will likely focus on emotional issues like Guantanamo Bay to distract from the real effort to cut into military pay and benefits.
JAGC…the MSM/DNC (but I repeat myself) would more likely be those mean obstructionist Republicans not doing what Preezy O’Choom wants, despite them controlling one half of one third of the government.
Of course, Senator Reid could, you know, ALLOW DEBATE on the budgets that have been approved and sent up from the House, but that’d make the Dems look bad, now wouldn’t it?
JAGC – further – what in the world makes you think the mainstream media cares what pay a bunch of knuckledraggers receive? They don’t need Guantanamo as a distraction… they just ignore the issue, safe in the knowledge that their primary customer base is more interested in what the new prince is going to be named or who the ‘bachelorette’ chooses.
Well, isn’t this just too special. Kinda like stumbling upon a toddler throwing a hissy fit in public – you had nothing to do with creating the problem but are forced to listen to it anyway.
Tired of hearing it!
So let’s further cut the military guy in the field, because we really don’t have a war going on or Senators wanting us in Syria, and cut the benefits for the backlog of vets over at the VA so we can fund more feel good entitlement programs. Worst POTUS and administration in history in my book and that includes Carter. But as Hondo pointed out, never, ever look at Social Security fraud or Medicare fraud. That’s just the fraud I am speaking of not the billions spent (given) to those who don’t need it.
How about cutting the budget of some of the un-Constitutional departments within the FedGub? Like, Education, farm subsidies for large agri-corps, EPA, HUD, BATFEces, (to name just a few).