House OKs $634 Billion Defense Bill, Doesn’t Include Surge

by snuffysmith | December 17, 2009 at 07:25 am

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Last week, The House passed a a $1.1 trillion Omnibus Spending Bill, a hotly contested bill loaded with every pet project Congress could imagine. Today, less than a week later, the House has rushed through another $634 billion DOD spending bill.

The bill, voted on with almost no debate on the last day before the Congress goes into recess, was ostensibly a bill to fund the Pentagon and America’s assorted wars for the next nine months.

But as with every spending bill Congress passes (with alarming frequency) it was filled to the brim with unrelated spending, spending nearly a million dollars on a sprinkler system in Brooklyn and thousands of other projects totaling billions of dollars.

Though Republicans expressed annoyance at the large amount of such projects slipped into the “defense” bill, few dared to vote against war spending, and the bill passed 395-34.

The DOD funding bill is a continuation of former President George Bush's approach to not fully account for the full costs of the DOD budget and ongoing wars, contrary to a campaign pledge made by Obama to not piece meal the DOD budget. Some things in Washington never change.

Hide the Ball Budgeting Continues.