In Defense Of The Republic

House Republicans sure have no issue working with Democrats when it comes to nearly $800 billion in Pentagon spending, and House Democrats have no problem working with the GOP to spend a crapload of money when they want to, deficits be damned.

The National Defense Authorization Act, the annual must-pass legislation that sets the policy agenda and authorizes almost $770 billion in funding for the Department of Defense, passed in the House of Representatives on Tuesday night. 

The bill now moves to the Senate, where it will likely be voted on later this week, before it can be signed into law by President Joe Biden. 

The bill passed with strong bipartisan support, with a final vote of 363-70, with 169 Democrats and 194 Republicans voting for the bill, while 51 Democrats and 19 Republicans voted against it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the only member to not vote. 

The final version of the bill, which leadership from both chambers have agreed to, contains changes to how sexual assault and harassment are prosecuted and handled within the military, a 2.7% pay increase for military service members and Defense Department civilian employees, and $300 million in military aid to the Ukrainian Security Assistance Initiative, adding $50 million more than what was proposed in the budget request, summaries of the bill's text from the House and Senate Armed Services Committees stated. 

The sweeping bill targets issues that have been top-of-mind for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin since he took the helm of the department in January, from the handling of sexual assault and harassment within the military to changes to bias and discrimination training for all military branches. 

On the foreign policy front, it also establishes a "multi-year independent Afghanistan War Commission" to examine the war in Afghanistan after the US military withdrawal in August, covering the entire 20 years of the war.

 

So "changes to how sexual assault and harassment are prosecuted and handled in the military" is a euphemism for absolutely ripping the spine out of a bipartisan Senate bill that would put most felony cases into that hands of federal prosecutors, not just harassment claims and assure that the bill never gets a vote.

The bigger issue is "Why do we need even more money for the Pentagon when we're leaving Afghanistan" and the answer is "Whatever nonsense Russia and China are up to with Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively".

There's always money in the banana stand for the shooty bits.