[Goose]

I’m curious what the debt ceiling deal means for Ukraine funding. My understanding is that the deal keeps military spending “roughly” the same in real dollars as FY2022. Looking back at news for the past year, it looks like FY2022 funding for Ukraine was well north of $50 billion. Does that mean another $50+ billion is available in FY2024?  Or is this just not known yet?  If someone can answer this without getting into the partisan political nature of budgeting, I’d appreciate it. I’m not trying to get into whether the debt ceiling deal is good or bad, just how much funding will be available for Ukraine, if that’s known. Thanks!

I don't think the Ukraine funding and the "military" budget are expressly linked. In the recent past, i.e. the last 30 years (I am old, obviously) the various different administrations have often basically forced the military to fund "extraordinary events" from their existing budgets, but this has not always been the case. While there are indeed many valid questions about the currently proposed defense budgets (in many different ways), I don't think we know for sure how the Ukraine expenses are going to be "charged off". On one hand, much of the equipment counted in the Ukraine cost is equipment from existing US stocks, it is probably being charged off at "book value" and does not represent an actual cash outlay. OTOH, if that equipment needs to be replaced, the replacement cost may be higher than the current book value and money may be needed to do that. Who knows what will eventually be done?

[Goose]

I’m curious what the debt ceiling deal means for Ukraine funding. My understanding is that the deal keeps military spending “roughly” the same in real dollars as FY2022. Looking back at news for the past year, it looks like FY2022 funding for Ukraine was well north of $50 billion. Does that mean another $50+ billion is available in FY2024?  Or is this just not known yet?  If someone can answer this without getting into the partisan political nature of budgeting, I’d appreciate it. I’m not trying to get into whether the debt ceiling deal is good or bad, just how much funding will be available for Ukraine, if that’s known. Thanks!

I don't think the Ukraine funding and the "military" budget are expressly linked. In the recent past, i.e. the last 30 years (I am old, obviously) the various different administrations have often basically forced the military to fund "extraordinary events" from their existing budgets, but this has not always been the case. While there are indeed many valid questions about the currently proposed defense budgets (in many different ways), I don't think we know for sure how the Ukraine expenses are going to be "charged off". On one hand, much of the equipment counted in the Ukraine cost is equipment from existing US stocks, it is probably being charged off at "book value" and does not represent an actual cash outlay. OTOH, if that equipment needs to be replaced, the replacement cost may be higher than the current book value and money may be needed to do that. Who knows what will eventually be done?