Is The Pentagon Budget About To Grow?

The Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, taken from an airplane in January 2008. Wikipedia

Some Fear Budget Deal Will Reopen Pentagon Spigot -- Bryan Bender, Boston Globe

Automatic cuts had triggered scrutiny of wasteful programs

WASHINGTON — The automatic federal budget cuts Congress imposed in early 2013 raised hopes in some quarters that the Pentagon’s spending juggernaut, long criticized as bloated and wasteful, finally would be curtailed.

Those expectations may prove fleeting.

Working together on a broader budget deal, lawmakers in December reversed $32 billion in defense sequester cuts that would have taken hold over the next two years. The bipartisan spending deal triggered celebrations at defense firms and sighs of relief in states where job losses were feared in the new year.

But budget watchdogs and defense-contracting reformers worry that reversing the cuts will ease a rare sense of financial discipline that had taken hold in the Department of Defense, taking the pressure off Pentagon planners to cut ill-conceived weapons programs and excessive overhead.

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My Comment: I am skeptical that the Pentagon will get more money for the simple reason that the money is not there (unless there are more tax increases and entitle cuts .... which will not happen). Having said that .... I must confess that when it comes to government spending .... never say never.