Chris0nllyn
Well-Known Member
For the second year in a row, Trump will raid the Department of Defense’s coffers for money for the U.S.-Mexico border wall, dipping into fiscal year 2020 funds earmarked for counterdrug activities and military construction. But this year, a significant chunk of those dollars will be funneled from a war account known as the Overseas Contingency Operations fund
As it did last year, the White House is planning to transfer funds from elsewhere in the Pentagon’s budget into the counterdrug account. From there, the White House has argued it can legally transfer that money to build additional miles of the wall under U.S. Code Section 284 (b).
The money will go toward “barrier projects,” including building fences, roads, and lighting, in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, said Robert Salesses, deputy assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense integration and defense support of civil authorities, on Thursday at the Pentagon.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/13/trump-to-raid-pentagon-war-account-to-build-border-wall/In total, the department plans to divert $1.6 billion from the Overseas Contingency Operations account to the counterdrug account, according to the reprogramming, which was signed by acting Pentagon comptroller Elaine McCusker. The money was intended for procurement of two C-130J airlift aircraft and eight MQ-9 unmanned aerial systems, as well as National Guard and Reserve equipment.
In addition, the department plans to transfer $2.2 billion from the base budget—funds that would otherwise have gone to buy Army vehicles, Navy aircraft and ships, and Air Force aircraft—to the counterdrug account. Specifically, the transfer includes $201 million for Army vehicles, $223 million for two Navy F-35s, $155 million for two V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, $180 million for one P-8 maritime aircraft, $650 million for Navy landing helicopter assault ships, $261 million for Expeditionary Fast Transports, $156 million for advanced procurement funds for Air Force F-35s, $196 million for two C-130Js, and $180 million from the now-defunct light attack aircraft program.
Instead of wasting billions on overseas conflicts, we'll do it at home.
And just because we all love to point out hypocrisy on both sides, under the Obama administration, Mulvaney (Trump's OMB Director) blasted the decision to raid OCO funding in order to bypass Congressional spending caps.
Mulvaney once called it "an accounting trick", "gimmick", "sham" and the OCO as a "slush fund". He called the practice "desperate," "dishonest," "disingenuous," "deceptive," and "mischievous."