‘Fund first, ask questions later’ is a bad way to go

Among the innovations of the new One Big Beautiful Bill Act is handing huge sums to the Pentagon without asking for justification in advance or offering clear direction for their expenditure. Some may tout this flexible approach as a boon to national security, but it is far more likely to produce the opposite: wasteful, deficit-fueled spending on abortive programs that ultimately hurt the military more than they help it. With House Speaker Mike Johnson already floating proposals for more reconciliation bills, it’s important to understand why.

Typically, the Pentagon’s spending is laid out in the annual Defense Appropriations Act, which allocates funds at the account level across the military’s various agencies. The funding tables that accompany the bill specify amounts for individual