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House Democrats Back DownThe military budget is as bloated as ever.

By Fred KaplanPosted Thursday, May 10, 2007, at 6:16 PM ET

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The closest thing to such a project is President Bush's cherished missile-defense project—a scaled-down version of Richard Nixon's ABM and Ronald Reagan's Star Wars. And, as might be expected, the House panelists did make at least a dent in missile defense—though not a large one, cutting Bush's $9.5 billion request by $764 million, or 8 percent. Still, it is a cut—which is more than any committee inflicted on the program when the Republicans controlled Capitol Hill.

The savings from this cut were transferred to more imminent and practical needs—more body armor and mine-resistant vehicles for soldiers in Iraq, a 3.5 percent pay hike for military personnel (a bit higher than the 3 percent hike that Bush had proposed), and a cancellation of extra user fees for military health care.

Besides missile defense, the House panel dealt a blow to only one other weapons program—the Army's unwieldy, high-tech Future Combat Systems, which it cut by nearly one-quarter, from $3.7 billion to $2.8 billion. The official rationale in the committee's budget report: "The Army has identified bigger, more critical priorities that must be addressed before devoting such large resources to futuristic technologies."

This is mumbo-jumbo code word for the real reason: The Army is the chief beneficiary of the committee's budget increases, so the extra money has to be taken out of the Army's hide. The only big new weapon on the Army's R&D shelf is the Future Combat Systems; therefore, it—and not any Air Force or Navy system—has to take the fall. (Missile defense is run by an independent Pentagon agency, so it can be cut without upsetting the delicate budgetary balance among the services.)

And so, the House committee left unscathed the requests for a new aircraft carrier ($3.1 billion), a new nuclear submarine ($2.7 billion), two new destroyer ships ($3.4 billion), 12 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft ($2.4 billion), and numerous other weapons programs that could just as validly have been cut on the grounds that "more critical priorities ... must be addressed."

The budget season is far from over. The House armed services committee only authorizes spending for the Defense Department. The House appropriations committee obligates the actual money. Amendments to both bills can be offered on the House floor. The Senate goes through the same process. Then any disagreements between the two chambers' versions are resolved in a House-Senate conference committee.

Most of the focus this season—and properly so—will be on Iraq, especially on whether funding for the war should be tied to conditions for withdrawing U.S. troops. However, away from the limelight, legislators will deliberate over spending much, much more money for weapons, projects, and dreams that have little or nothing to do with Iraq, Afghanistan, the war on terror, or national security, as the term is generally understood. And as the defense bill moves from one committee and chamber to another, as the lobbyists step into gear, and as the wrangling and trade-offs intensify, this larger budget is likely to grow larger still.