oldParasiteSingle: This is why I promptly went to reddit to accuse Panetta of lying 2 weeks ago when he announced that the Pentagon is cutting its own budget growth next year under threat of sequester. They’ve never cut their own growth in their entire history before, so why would they start doing it now? All I expect from the Pentagon is a very slight cosmetic reduction in brass creep. They are no more patriotic about the black budget than their gouging contractor friends.

nickturse:

When the Pentagon announced its 2013 budget last week, the press dutifully repoted the number, $525.4 billion, and Pentagon-watchers laughed.  We all knew it had next to nothing to do with real national security spending.  Luckily Winslow Wheeler — one of the most experienced and intelligent Pentagon-watchers around — ignored the press releases, dug into the budget and crunched the numbers.  No surprise, his numbers show that spending is about what it has been for years now, around $1 trillion.