An OK Deal On the Budget

摘要

Although a two-year bipartisan budget deal hatched late last year allowed the military to fund most of its top programs for this year, officials in the Air Force and other military services worry that spending levels for Fiscal 2017 remain too low. But in an era of fiscal belt-tightening, the deal lifts spending caps set in a 2011 law and is certainly better than nothing. During a trip to Turkey in December, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said the agreement was a sign of a fractious Washington finally coming together, even if it meant the military would continue to have to strike a balance among its many funding priorities. "Obviously you'd always like to have more money, but we try to make the best use of every dollar the taxpayer gives us, whether that is money for enduring facilities, or whether it's for a surge for a war," Carter said during a town hall at Incirlik Air Base.