By adding tens of billions for the military in the budget under OCO, Republicans in Congress hope to get around the Budget Control Act without ceding any ground to President Barack Obama on domestic spending.

But a closer reading of the 2011 budget statute shows it’s not that simple and Obama has more leverage than many in the GOP seem to realize. That’s because the BCA requires both Congress and the White House to sign off on any spending exempted from the appropriations caps.

Absent such an agreement, whatever extra spending that Republicans add for the military will be short-lived and almost certainly trigger across-the-board cuts next January.

That’s because spending resolutions approved last week by the House and Senate both leave defense and domestic spending caps in place.
Both chambers’ budget resolutions include the same amount for the Pentagon’s base budget: $499 billion. That’s the amount allowed under the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Both chambers approved more overseas contingency operations (OCO) funding — $96 billion by the House, $89 billion by the Senate — but defense hawks and Pentagon officials wanted extra base budget monies.

No matter how much money is put into OCO to ease the defense budget crunch, without both Congress and the White House agreeing to the figure, the extra money that the budget committees plugged into the resolution will never be appropriated.