Obama and Congress Are about to Go to War over War Funding

Daniel R. DePetris

Politics, United States

Republicans want to use OCO money to pay for extras in the regular budget.

One of the most basic responsibilities of the U.S. government—if not the most basic—is providing for the national defense. What this general phrase means is subject to interpretation depending on whether you happen to be a defense hawk or a fiscal hawk in the Tea Party mold, but the concept is nonetheless self-explanatory: to be safe, prosperous and a stalwart ally to friends around the world, politicians in Washington need to ensure that the U.S. armed forces have the tools, money, and flexibility to do their job.

While this may sound like a simple prescription and something Republicans and Democrats could agree on (who, after all, wants a U.S. military that is weak and decrepit?), providing for the common defense has deteriorated into another partisan issue. Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration refuse to contemplate more money for defense unless congressional Republicans allow a similar increase in nondefense spending. Republicans, meanwhile, view the 1:1 ratio as not only adding to America’s ever-growing national debt, but a scheme that places leftist politics above national-security needs.

As is so often the case, which side is being principled and which side is playing politics depends on which political party you happen to support.

The fight over defense spending almost resulted in another federal government shutdown last year. Indeed, before Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Agreement, the risk of the second shutdown in three years was very much on the table. Fortunately, the BCA was a vehicle that granted both parties a win—Democrats received the additional nondefense money that they were demanding, and Republicans in exchange were able to avoid a return to sequester levels that most defense experts inside the Beltway consider a national-security threat to be avoided at all costs.