Friday, June 30th., 2017
Senate Committee Passes $700 Billion Military Spending Bill

The Senate version is said to add 6,000 more Army soldiers and 1,000 Marines than the Pentagon wants,as well as 24 more of the troubled F-35 warplanes than have been requested.
Sen. Jack Reed (D – RI), ranking Democrat on the committee, endorsed the idea, but wanted the Budget Control Act repealed to allow such a massive increase without any legal obstacle.
Sequestration capped the increase rate of military spending in theory, but in practice the OCO budget has been used to circumvent that, as there was no limit on this, and laws enabled the money put into that budget to be shifted by the Pentagon wherever they want. Ironically, while no one takes sequestration seriously, the OCO slush fund seems to be continuing apace anyhow.
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