They're called "emergency spending measures" and they're the mechanism that the Bush administration used to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They appropriate money outside the budget process.
Now we've seen two emergency spending measures since Obama took office; the stimulus bill and the recent emergency spending measure to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (which has strong bipartisan support). We're still operating under Bush's last budget, though. You expect this sort of stuff at the beginning of an administration, particularly one that's trying to change direction quickly and decisively.
You expect this kind of thing at the beginning of a war, too. They tend to not be budgeted for at the outset. It doesn't make sense, though, to not include funding for an ongoing conflict in the budget after this point. Sure, there will likely be emergency spending measures needed to close gaps, but funding all war efforts? The phrase is "spending tricks."
The new Defense budget that Gates & Obama submitted includes funding for war efforts. First time since they started.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Off Budget?
Date: 2009-04-17 01:38 am (UTC)Now we've seen two emergency spending measures since Obama took office; the stimulus bill and the recent emergency spending measure to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (which has strong bipartisan support). We're still operating under Bush's last budget, though. You expect this sort of stuff at the beginning of an administration, particularly one that's trying to change direction quickly and decisively.
You expect this kind of thing at the beginning of a war, too. They tend to not be budgeted for at the outset. It doesn't make sense, though, to not include funding for an ongoing conflict in the budget after this point. Sure, there will likely be emergency spending measures needed to close gaps, but funding all war efforts? The phrase is "spending tricks."
The new Defense budget that Gates & Obama submitted includes funding for war efforts. First time since they started.