via antiwar:
ith everyone still reeling at the announcement of the $750 billion proposed military budget for 2020, a huge increase, the Trump Administration is now offering a proposed spying budget that is similarly looking for a substantial increase over the previous year.
The proposal stands at $86 billion, and is a six percent increase over the previous year. As with the military proposal, it rests heavily on the administration playing up the threat posed by Russia and China.
This budget includes $62.8 billion for general national intelligence programs, and another $23 billion that would go into the military’s highly secretive“black budget” for military intelligence activities.
It is unclear exactly how much of an increase this amounts to on a military level, as while the Pentagon did get a substantial amount in the 2019 budget, no official figure has been released yet. In 2018, the amount was $21.1 billion.
As ever, the final figure looks to be “more” and to the extent any justification is to be sought by Congress, they can expect the usual claims of growing Russia and China threats to be offered.