via Washington Times..
Senate Republican budget writers on Wednesday explicitly rebuffed House Republican efforts to circumvent military spending caps, releasing instead an austere budget that sticks to those limits and cuts trillions of dollars from federal health care and welfare spending to reach balance by 2025.
Over all, the Senate version hews closely to the budgetary intent of the House proposal, relying on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, turningMedicaid and food stamps into block grants, and cutting domestic programs to end federal red ink without tax increases.
The Senate budget also relies on a significant gimmick by counting on a repeal of the health law but also assuming that $2 trillion from the law’s tax increases will continue to flow into the Treasury.
The budget does little to placate concerns of Republican defense hawks that spending caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act are significantly undermining Defense Department operations. Rather than adding money over the caps, the Senate plan creates what is known as a “deficit neutral reserve fund,” which would allow negotiators later this year to reach an accord that overrides the 2011 budget law.
Read it all here.
My take?
Well a little birdy told me that the military in general and the Marine Corps in particular will seek to educate the Congress on the dangers of continued sequestration on national defense.
I was also told that a window of opportunity remained open if one body pushed forward a plan to plus up spending while the other held to caps.
That looks like the scenario we're facing right?
I'm not so sure.
The wild card that no one is considering are the Democrats. Both budgets hold to caps on domestic spending. The Dems won't go for that so where are we exactly?
A compromise? Increase defense spending to the same level that we increase domestic spending? I just don't see the budget hawks going for that.
So what does that leave us with? Continued sequestration.
There is one card left for the Pentagon to play if that's the case though. Consider it the political "nuclear" option.
WTF am I talking about? If sequestration continues then you will see the Pentagon demand another round of base closings AND a changed national security strategy that puts into law something that will scare the politicians and make them subject to public ridicule. The talk will be that we will only be able to handle one major regional war instead of two (I seriously doubt our ability to fight two MRC's even today)....further cuts to armor, infantry and air power...ships put into dry dock or retired early.
There will be no blood spilled in the Washington battlefield but careers will be ruined. This will be fun to watch.
