With less than two weeks until the end of the fiscal year, a long-term continuing resolution is currently the best and most realistic option to constrain out-of-control government spending and avoid another lame-duck omnibus appropriations bill.
However, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently sent a “parade of horribles” letter to Congress outlining the dangers of a six-month continuing resolution on the U.S. military.
The Austin letter predicts calamity should a continuing resolution occur for the Defense Department. However, that contradicts prior statements by his staffers and the comptroller general. The Pentagon’s top budget official testified in 2022—when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate—that “being under a continuing resolution into January and February is not unusual” and that the Pentagon has learned to do so out of necessity. In…
