Air Force seeks $18B more, but Congress wary

[babylonsister]

AF seeks $18B more, but Congress wary
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, February 29, 2008


WASHINGTON — Air Force officials believe they need $18 billion beyond their base budget next year to pay for critical programs, but members of Congress are concerned about the already hefty military price tag planned for coming years.

The fiscal 2009 budget proposal for the Air Force already tops $117 billion, a 7.9 percent increase from fiscal 2008. Earlier this month, Pentagon planners unveiled a $515 billion Defense budget for fiscal 2009, the highest since the end of World War II when adjusted for inflation.

That doesn’t include funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will be handled in later supplemental budget requests. And those funds don’t include nearly $30 billion in unfunded priorities detailed by each of the services to Congress last week.


snip//

But across Capitol Hill, members of the House Budget Committee debated whether increasing military spending has eliminated any hope of balancing the national budget in the next decade.

Chairman John Spratt Jr., D-S.C., said even with a hypothetical reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to around 75,000 by 2013, operations in those two countries will likely cost the U.S. more than $1 trillion in the next decade.

He criticized the Defense Department’s decision not to include the cost of combat operations in the base budget, saying it limits lawmakers’ ability to balance all military needs with fiscal responsibility.

more...


http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52927

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. I would be shocked, amazed, and delighted if congress doesn't cave as usual.

But, I place the chance of that happening on the same level as expecting them to be honest or courageous or having some unknown uncle leave me a million bucks.

[babylonsister]

2. I hear you. Maybe they'll shock us! Or not. nt

[DemoTex]

3. Well, $1.2 billion of USAF rolling stock went up in smoke on Guam the other day.

One each B-2 Spirit stealth bomber ($1.2 - $2.5 billion, depending on who you listen to) made a smoking hole at Andersen AFB, Guam.


"Waste not .. want not."