Pentagon Unveils $585 Billion Budget Request

Pentagon Unveils $585 Billion Budget Request // Gordon Lubold and Marcus Weisgerber

The Pentagon unveiled its fiscal 2016 budget proposal of $585 billion Monday, an increase over last year’s budget in recognition of the military’s wide-ranging need to respond to global conflicts in places like Liberia and Eastern Europe, buy new equipment and modernize the force.
The Pentagon’s baseline budget proposal is $534 billion – an increase of about $38 billion over last year. The administration’s request for it’s war chest, the military’s separate Overseas Contingency Operations account, which pays for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and now the train-and-equip program for Syrian rebels and other operations, is less than it was last year. The $51 billion request for the so-called “OCO” budget is about 21 percent less than the enacted operations budget last year.
Even as new operations begin in Iraq and across the Middle East as a train-and-equip program for Syria gets underway, the Pentagon will enjoy a peace dividend that reflects downsized operations of the 13-year war in Afghanistan. But the budget still ignores Congressionally-mandated budget caps.
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