Tuesday, March 03, 2020

How much money does the Pentagon have access to?

While the Department of Defense still remains unauditable, it is able to spend about $392 billion more than its proposed new budget . It does so by accessing other budgeted funds. One of these is the Overseas Contingency Operations account, which,if it was an agency in itself, it would be the fourth largest in the government; the budget here is $69 billion. Another source is the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages our nuclear weapons program; another $27.6 billion. A third are “Defense-Related” Activities, which includes a number of miscellaneous national-security-related matters, including international FBI activities and payments to the CIA retirement fund; the cost? $9.7 billion. Then, there is the intelligence budget; that's $23.1. Add in VA benefits of $238.4 billion, Homeland Security of $52.1 billion, DOD's share of the interest on our debt.

Are we getting our money's worth? Is the media reporting properly?

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