Pentagon lands extra $50 billion out of debt deal

Out of a bill that was supposed to cut government spending and waste wherever it is found, lawmakers managed to cobble together an additional $50 billion for the U.S. Defense Department's budget, using an accounting trick to disguise the move.

Instead of cutting $400 billion from the Pentagon's budget over the next 12 years like President Barack Obama proposed in April, Republicans put their own cuts at $350 billion over the next 13 years, leaving the nation's defense apparatus an extra $50 billion it hadn't planned on.

Disguised as a cut, the Pentagon's budget boost would have gone unnoticed in the press were it not for McClatchy reporter Nancy A. Youssef.

At the time of his recommendation, President Obama said that part of the savings might come from the scheduled withdrawal of the remaining U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year, as well as a planned drawdown of forces in Afghanistan.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/02/pentagon-lands-extra-50-billion-out-of-debt-deal

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We are such suckers.

we invade countries to get their oil. the military is the largest single user of fossil fuels in the US economy. they need oil to fight wars.

So we invade countries to ge their oil...

rince and repeat.

:sarcasm: