White House Cuts $25 Billion More From Defense to Fund VA

When it was first decided to send the troops into Afghanistan, no one thought about how to pay for any of it. Then troops were send into Iraq. Yet again, no one thought about how to pay for any of it or how long it would go on.

"The Pentagon’s latest figures through July 30 indicate the military’s spent $1.054 trillion since Sept. 11, 2001, with $704.6 billion obligated for Iraq and $323.2 billion for Afghanistan."

They didn't even know how much it would cost or how long the troops would be there any more than they knew how many wounded would make it back home.

Now with more and more wounded entering into VA healthcare across the country, it has come to this. Budget cuts from the Department of Defense for the sake of the VA.

White House Cuts $25 Billion More From Defense to Fund VA
September 30, 2011

By Tony Capaccio

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The White House has directed the Pentagon to reduce its 10-year spending plan by another $25 billion, on top of the roughly $450 billion it’s already planning to cut, according to three government officials.

The Office of Management and Budget directed the action because the White House decided to protect Veterans Administration medical funding from cuts, said one the officials. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because the change hasn’t been announced.

The reduction might mean a $1 billion cut in the pending $513 billion defense bill for fiscal 2012, said the official, who was familiar with the OMB action. The bill’s already been reduced $26 billion from the Pentagon’s original budget request, meaning about no increase from current year spending.

The OMB guidance came in early September, said one of the three sources.

A $27 billion reduction remains within the range laid out in the Budget Control Act signed into law Aug. 2. For the fiscal years beginning in 2013, the new cut would average an additional $2.5 billion a year, the official said.

The Budget Control Act has an overall cap for fiscal 2012 and 2013 that includes the Defense Department, State Department, Veterans Administration and Department of Homeland Security, so to protect this veterans funding means that all other accounts in the security budget will have to be cut that much more, said Todd Harrison, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a non-partisan budget analysis group in Washington.
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