Can't Just Ask for $79.4 Billion as a 'Placeholder'

House Appropriations leaders are none too happy with the latest Pentagon budget request, for 2015, and the subcommittee says there is a “serious hole” in the budget’s justification.

That’s the emergency war funds provision. The Pentagon is asking for $79.4 billion as a “placeholder” amount, while refusing to offer any details of what it would be spent on, saying the situation is too fluid for that.

The emergency war funding provision is roughly identical to the 2014 amount, a perplexing fact since the Pentagon is hyping a huge drawdown that’s supposed to be finished before 2015 even begins.

$79.4 billion is more than virtually every other nation on the planet spends on its entire military, and while it’s only about 10% of the overall US request, it’s still enough money that Congress seems reticent about giving it to the military for no apparent reason.