WASHINGTON -- U.S. Republicans and Democrats alike claim to support fiscal responsibility, but you wouldn't know it from the defense budget. The House-Senate Conference Committee has approved $8 billion in budget authority for next year -- $8.3 billion more than requested by the Clinton administration, whose own proposal was larded with pork.
The Pentagon and its allies have been arguing that the military is starved for funds. Yet the defense budget, adjusted for inflation, remains at the level of 1980, when there was a Cold War, Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. Congress has only repealed the Reagan military build-up.
Personnel retention and service readiness have been suffering, but not because of inadequate spending. The problem is the administration's promiscuous deployment of U.S. forces for frivolous purposes -- to Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo and more.