Hawks Hint at Expanding Use of Never-Ending War 'Slush Fund'

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/07/16-11



Vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sees counterterrorism funding expanding

Hawks Hint at Expanding Use of Never-Ending War 'Slush Fund'
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer
Published on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 by Common Dreams

A proposal for supplemental war funding was under scrutiny Wednesday at a Congressional hearing, where Defense Department officials hinted that there is no end in sight to the need for this counterterrorism "war chest."

At issue is nearly $60 billion proposed last month by the White House for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds for the 2015 budget. The pot for OCO, which until 2009 was called Global War on Terrorism, is on top of the base budget for the Defense Department, which for the 2015 proposal is nearly $500 billion.

Mattea Kramer of the National Priorities Project has pointed out that the OCO budget "isn’t subject to caps or cuts or any restrictions at all." This has led some, like Stephen Miles, coalition coordinator for Win Without War, to refer to it as "a massive slush fund to avoid fiscal discipline."

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) held a hearing on the OCO funding proposal on Wednesday.