Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Politico:

President Bush’s 2009 budget, to be unveiled Monday, is expected to call for an almost $36 billion increase in core Defense Department spending, apart from the larger costs of maintaining U.S. military operations in Iraq and the overall war against terrorism.

An estimated $515.4 billion would be dedicated to defense including family housing and health care for troops, according to drafts of Pentagon documents, which highlight increases for new weapons procurement but also the huge costs of maintaining today’s professional military.

Military pay and health care costs would grow by $9 billion, an even larger increase than the $8.3 billion dedicated to strategic modernization.

And about 42 percent of the total increase, or $14.9 billion, would be eaten up by escalating operations, readiness and support costs.

The steady growth in defense comes at a time when the administration is attempting to slow domestic spending and set up what amounts to a budget challenge this year that effectively dares the Democratic Congress to go over what could be a $1 trillion mark in total discretionary appropriations.

The president’s budget is expected to set a target of holding all discretionary spending to about $990 billion, just below the $1 trillion mark and about $49 billion above the estimated level today for fiscal 2008, according to the White House.

The new defense request would then absorb almost three-quarters of this increase; once Homeland Security, the State Department and the costs of the Census are factored in, there will be little room for many Democratic-backed domestic programs.

But going over the $990 billion target could have its own political peril.

In the current fiscal year, Congress approved $479.5 billion for defense and related military construction, and the new budget represents a 7.5 percent increase over this funding level or 5.4 percent after inflation.

Not counted in any of these numbers are the emergency appropriations that the Pentagon also relies upon to maintain operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thus far Congress has approved $86.8 billion for these military needs for 2008, and another $102.5 billion request is pending this spring.

If approved, that would bring total defense spending for 2008 to $668.8 billion, according to the documents.

And by this reckoning the $1 trillion mark has already been breached when these emergency funds are included.

Looking forward toward 2009, the president’s budget stops short of outlining the likely needs for the full year and instead anticipates only a $70 billion fund to carry into the next administration.

And given the costs already this year, and the fact of the hesitancy about more troop withdrawals beyond those already announced, the $70 billion would appear to be less than half of what will be required for the coming year.

Among major weapon systems, the budget anticipates the purchase of another 20 F-22A Raptors, the Air Force’s new tactical fighter.

This is the scheduled final round of production for the Lockheed Martin plane but no apparent funds are included for closing down the line.

The result is to push a final decision on the future of the fighter into the next administration.

In fact, it is already anticipated that the $70 billion emergency request could include a request for four more of the planes, and the Air Force has been anxious to buy even more, given recent problems with its older F-15 model.