Meet the Overseas Contingency Operations Account – Washington D.C.’s Crony Capitalist War Slush Fund

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Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain has called it a “gimmick,” and Democrats complain that larding up the separate war funding bill with extra spending amounts to an “abusive loophole.” Yet so far, the massive increase is likely to remain in this year’s budget.

Another major criticism of the process has been its common use to fund favored projects and other items not directly tied to the war — a trend that has steadily grown over the years as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on and the Pentagon loosened the definition of war-related spending.

From 2001 to 2014, nearly $71 billion of nonwar funding was provided through war appropriations, according to the Pentagon’s own definition, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service reported in December.

– From the Politico article: War Budget Might be Permanent ‘Slush Fund’

Many people will read this post, and posts like it, and shrug their shoulders saying that there’s always going to be corruption. True; however, there are degrees of corruption. When empires such as the U.S. attain a certain level of corruption that reaches the point where it becomes engrained within the fabric of society, and you couple that with zero accountability for the super rich and powerful, you have the ingredients for societal collapse. We are rapidly approaching this point, and I personally don’t think there’s any way to stop it.

The best we can hope for is to sound the alarm bells as loudly as possible right now, identify the culprits and their methods of systemic abuse so that when what Martin Armstrong calls “crash and burn” happens, we don’t respond counterproductively by elevating even greater sociopaths into positions of power (yes this is possible and as history shows, quite probable).

With all that in mind, I want to introduce readers to the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account, or what is being referred to as the “war slush fund.” You know something’s bad when even Crazy John McCain calls it a “gimmick.”

From Politico:

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain has called it a “gimmick,” and Democrats complain that larding up the separate war funding bill with extra spending amounts to an “abusive loophole.” Yet so far, the massive increase is likely to remain in this year’s budget.

Read that again and think about the complete insanity of it. Everyone agrees it’s horrible, but it’s likely to remain anyway. This is imperial incompetence at its worst.

The practice of funding military operations through a separate spending account — called the Overseas Contingency Operations, or OCO, fund — was initially conceived as an “emergency” option, since wars cannot be budgeted for ahead of time and require supplemental funding as needs arise.

Fed funds rates at 0% were also an “emergency measure” and here we are five years later, supposedly in a healthy economy with financial oligarchs still hooked on earning from 0% free money.

War budgets have historically received far less scrutiny than the Pentagon’s so-called base budget. Weapons or equipment requested in these supplemental appropriations do not require detailed justifications. And, politically, lawmakers have also been less willing to vote against the budget that funds troops in foreign wars — making the measures easier to pass without serious scrubbing.

No wonder the U.S. seems to become engaged in a new war every other week. They don’t even care who’s fighting and killing each other. Weapons disappear and no one even cares, see: True Story – U.S. Military Lost Equipment from $750 Million Program, Some Ended up on eBay and Craigslist.

It’s all about producing more weapons, making mountains of cash, and then doing it again and again. The NSA in particular gets the joke:

It’s Not Just Spying – How the NSA Has Turned Into a Giant Profit Center for Corrupt Insiders

Another major criticism of the process has been its common use to fund favored projects and other items not directly tied to the war — a trend that has steadily grown over the years as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on and the Pentagon loosened the definition of war-related spending.

From 2001 to 2014, nearly $71 billion of nonwar funding was provided through war appropriations, according to the Pentagon’s own definition, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service reported in December.

The task of determining how to allocate the additional $38 billion in war funding will be left to the appropriations committees, if they are able to pass bills with the added spending. The administration’s initial $58 billion request already includes more than $42 billion for the war in Afghanistan and $5 billion for operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“I think that we need to support, reluctantly, the OCO provision, which is to some degree a gimmick,” the Arizona Republican said last week. “But as opposed to going with the effects of sequestration, I would support OCO as the House acted.”

Just classic. You can always count on John McCain to come out and support something even though he admits it’s a gimmick. With “leaders” like these…

“Adding hundreds of billions of dollars that are more conveniently designated as emergency expenditures — so that they don’t have to be budgeted for along with other national priorities — is only making the fiscal problem that much greater,” McCain said in a floor speech then. “It is unfortunate that, at a time of war and with such a huge deficit and burgeoning debt, we continue to fund unnecessary projects and load up emergency supplemental appropriations bills with non-emergency items.”

What is now in the offing is a scale of abuse not yet seen, according to Winslow Wheeler, a former national security staffer for members of both parties and longtime Pentagon spending critic.

“Four or five years ago, Congress embraced it as a gimmick for $5 [billion] to $10 billion extra,” he said. “Now, they want to embrace it for $40 billion extra.”

The imperial spiral into the stratosphere of stupidity is well underway. With zero accountability for those in power, there’s no way to realistically stop it before crash and burn. The best we can hope is to bring the responsible to justice afterward and pick up the pieces by going back to the Constitution. The intellectual foundation for this must be laid down now. That is the primary purpose of this website.

For related articles, see:

A First Look at a New Report on Crony Capitalism – Trillions in Corporate Welfare

The Department of Homeland Security is a Conduit for Crony Capitalism

Meet James Biden: The Vice-President’s Crony Capitalist Brother

Conscious Capitalism

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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7 thoughts on “Meet the Overseas Contingency Operations Account – Washington D.C.’s Crony Capitalist War Slush Fund”

  1. Yes, Michael, you are correct…and sadly, it will not be a smooth transition even if we do come out more or less intact on the other side.

    I know just about everyone who reads your stories is already convinced of the futility of expecting this human cesspool of corruption to change course, but what is so maddening is that there are literally tens of millions of people who don’t seem to care that the Visigoths in government are carting off our national treasure at a rapidly quickening pace. They stripped all the easy loot years ago when they had to be creative in how they disguised their plunder. But now, it’s no more sophisticated than a gang of copper thieves stripping the plumbing out of a house in broad daylight.

    I used to try to cover all my bases–and be coolly objective–by planning contingencies that included life in America returning to a somewhat normal routine like I enjoyed growing up, but no more. There is no point. Congressional stupidity can’t overrule mathematical absolutes.

    It is ALL coming down and when it does it will be the worst disaster to hit this country in living memory, including the Great Depression. We are going to the scale of destruction of the Civil War, IF we can escape a nuclear exchange with the countries we are mindlessly antagonizing.

    The one bright note in all this is it greatly simplifies retirement planning; there will be none. There will be struggle, suffering, death, and if we still deserve it–I have my doubts–redemption.

    Reply
  2. How about requestimg or getting legal advise to use taxpayers money to take legal action against them. Taxpayers money belongs to the public . Make sure the next president is a true American that does not have dual citizenship even if he gives his non American citizenship. Choose a president who loves US and its people.
    My second point which is not related to this is since the English created slavery .,then should they not be accountable and action taken against them rather than putting the blame on others eg Asians. Eg again the English created the war in Iraq and lots of other places then action should be taken against them rather than making young children not born or very young becoming victims of thid war eg the children going to Syria. I ALSO BLAME THE MEDIA FOR FOCUsing 24/7 on the ISIS . I remember the English hating the US in early 2000 and blaming the US for the unrest bet Israel and Palestian. The English also caused the potato famine in Ireland.war in India and stole they resources . so take Tony Blair down

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  3. so much info on top of disinfo but what remains stable are the facts on who’s WHO and who’s responsible…..and definitely there ARE enough nationwide acting just like Santa !
    making a list and checkin it twice !

    Listen, get right with the Almighty, keep right with Him and simply watch,take heed and be attentive to what He wants you to do.

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  4. THE KILLING by government officals of the american people has become ingrained in government so deeply,YOUR only choice is to disband all the police departments,nation wide and arrest them for treason,and THEN,you can go after the real criminals,UNTIL you do that,and take down their mussel,your screwed,then disband the military industrial complex,then the MEDICAL industrial complex.ONE at a time,but you have to take down their mussel first…IF you don’t do this,they will turn every KID in america into slaves…is that what you want??

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