THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

As it has been in the past, the new Defense Spending Bill passed by Congress reduces costs for the personnel required to fight all their dirty little wars and protects the manufacturers and developers of all the overpriced junk the personnel are supposed to use from any cuts in monies wasted.

The Senate passed the legislation 89-11 and sent it to President Barack Obama to sign into law. The House of Representatives last week endorsed the measure, which sets defense policy and authorizes spending levels for the 2015 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, but does not actually appropriate funding.

The bill approves a Pentagon base budget of $496 billion, in line with Obama's request, plus nearly $64 billion for conflicts abroad including the war in Afghanistan. It also authorizes $17.9 billion for Energy Department nuclear weapons work.

The bill takes new steps to control personnel costs, which consume about half the Pentagon budget, essentially approving a year's worth of proposed long-term reforms but delaying further action until hearing in February from a congressionally appointed commission on military compensation.

The measure increases co-pays on most prescription drugs by $3, reduces the military housing allowance by 1 percentage point and remains silent on military pay hikes, thus allowing the Pentagon to implement a proposed 1 percent raise. In the past, Congress often approved pay raises above levels recommended by the Pentagon but did not do so this year.

The bill rejects a number of Pentagon efforts to retire or curtail weapons systems the department insists it can no longer afford to maintain because of budget cuts intended to trim projected defense spending by nearly $1 trillion over a decade.

The measure bars retirement of the A-10 Warthog close air support plane, beloved by ground troops because of its ability to fly low and destroy enemy tanks. The Air Force wants to retire the fleet to cut costs and retrain maintenance personnel to work on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

It's good to see we will be able to pay for our continued failure in Shitholeistan and get a bunch of shiny new nukes as well. The one good point is the saving of the A-10, a successful weapon that the Air Force, with its current leadership, will never see the like of again. And as a point of curiosity, how many maintenance personnel does the F-35 Joint Budget Buster need??