Defense spending

The military’s ‘readiness’ scam worked again

For at least the next two years, the American public should be spared the U.S. Defense Department's wailing about "readiness." After seven years of teeth-gnashing and garment-rending, the military is finally getting what it wants: more money than ever. The Donald Trump administration's defense budget request for fiscal year 2019 came out less than a week after Congress cut an overall deal on spending levels for 2018 and 2019. Unlike the domestic spending part of the administration's budget request, the defense numbers aren't dead on arrival. In fact, the military can count on getting every cent.The congressional deal set new levels, agreeing to $700 billion for national defense in 2018 and $716 billion in 2019. That's nearly $165 billion more than the military had anticipated prior to this year. The United States is back to defense spending, in constant dollars, that is higher than the peak spending levels under Ronald Reagan. Only in 2011, at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was defense spending higher.