For every democratic country, a section of the federal budget is factored into the Constitution to ensure the defense department is considered ( Schick, 2008) . Through this provision, the government must design and develop a federal budget to care for the people's interests ( Schick, 2008) . There are public budgets, which provide a detailed description of what the government is doing by listing how the money will be allocated to different sectors of the economy. Therefore, a budget is linked to the tasks to be performed, considering the number of resources required to accomplish them (Rubin, 2019). Consequently, it is vital to note that a budget tends to limit expenditures to the stream of revenues available. The result is that it makes sure that there is balance, and as such, there is no form of overspending by the government (Rubin, 2019). In other words, money is not allocated to a task; it cannot be executed. Therefore, institutions must consider the nature of risks involved. If a budget is not constructed effectively and a thorough analysis is done, the work will be technical, time-consuming, and inaccurate. Therefore, most governments are compelled to produce a federal budget on time to ensure all aspects of the economy are allocated according to the availability of resources and funds. A budget tends to present several things. One, it reflects what the government will and will not do.
In a nutshell, they show a general public consensus on what precisely the government will be focused on, the nature of services it will render, and what citizens will be entitled to and provided with as members of the society. Therefore, citizens will have a clear picture of how their livelihood will be affected for the better or the worse. Apart from the overall federal budget, the budget is structured so that every department, government arm, and other institutions are allocated their national budget share ( Schick, 2008) . Therefore, for this research paper, we are going to focus on the defense budget. Primarily, the paper will investigate the structure of the budget, and through this, it will be able to evaluate precisely how the defense budget comes in handy. At this present time, various defense departments for several countries have been able to get a revamped form of a defense budget structure together with an added lumpsum to go along with it. Therefore, this research is crucial because of this primary reason and among others that to be discussed.
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Defense Budget
As stated above, a budget comprises several things that are regarded as the commitments that should be fulfilled for the betterment and progression of the said entity, which is beneficial in improving people's lives. Therefore, to begin with, it concerns itself with the aspects of obligations, budget authority, and outlays. Something worth noting with the DOD funds is that Congress provides them through the aspect of budget authority ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ). With this being done, it is now the responsibility of the agencies to obligate the funds. Finally, there are outlays that are seen to be conducted in paychecks being issued together with a stream or series of payments being made on contracts throughout the financial year.
On the other hand, there is also the case of defining the budget on a broad aspect of the National Defense Budget Function, or when looking at the narrow aspect, it can be defined as the Department of Defense Budget. In all these aspects, Congress's structure on the defense budget status is different from the structure the Department of Defense formulates ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ). Regardless, the budget remains intact and works according to the set principles and boundaries, which are primarily necessary for a balanced and optimum delegation of resources throughout the financial year. To critically illustrate the defense budget structure, one must look into the three main phases of its process. These phases include; preparation, congressional consideration, and budget execution.
Preparation
The stage of preparation for almost anything is crucial to the structure. This is because preparation happens to determine if the complex or even simple entity will make the first step. Therefore, for the Department of Defense, the Executive branch is tasked with ensuring that the budget is allocated. As such, a formal request has to be made for this to be considered by Congress on the budget that the DOD requires. Consequently, the Department of Defense has been able to develop a relatively sophisticated system over the years. This system has been highly useful for formulating long-term budget plans and the ability to make sure that the annual budget requests to Congress are prepared quite effectively and on time. This form of mechanism happens to be the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PBS) ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ). After that, the White House, through the assistance of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), steps in the PBS process. It does so because t is tasked with stepping in on behalf of the President to submit the defense budget request to Congress. Without this request going through, Congress will likely fall behind informally calling for the budget request. However, this situation has never happened. Nevertheless, a nation cannot run without a fully funded defense team, which will likely be the picture of things if a formal request by the Executive branch is not sent to Congress ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ). Consequently, due to the sophisticated type of mechanisms and operations set in place from the Department of Defense to the White House, it is improbable that such scenarios can ever occur.
Congressional Consideration
The United States prides itself on democracy and the inclusion of human rights in all of its endeavors ( McNamara & Musgrave, 2020) . Therefore, in all federal government processes, when it comes to any bill, law, or point of making a crucial and sensitive decision, Congress is usually in the forefront to steer these ships ( Schick, 2008) . Congress is composed of 100 senators and 435 House of Representatives. This brings a total of 535 members of Congress who have the power to vote ( Poole & Rosenthal, 1991) . Because the people elected these individuals through a democratic process, they represent the people's voice. Therefore, any vote they tend to cast on any bill that comes to Congress is crucial for either the passing or the striking out of the bill from consideration. The defense budget is no exception, and the federal government budget ( Schick, 2008) . For this section of consideration, the process has three phases: the budget resolution, the defense authorization bill, and defense-related appropriations bills. The budget resolution mainly focuses on coming up and enforcing targets related to budget authority and outlays, for starters. Through this enforcement process, there happens to be creating a gap or rather a flexibility mechanism created concerning appropriators ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ). The last process of consideration, which is dealing with appropriations bills, happens to be the one to approve the defense budget taking into consideration the details across various levels.
Additionally, this process tends to have the authority to approve the budget allocated for agencies. Even though the budget will have been done and closed, in some instances during the financial year, there can come a time when the Department of Defense may require additional funding. If this is the case, the Congress uses the flexibility clause left on the appropriations bills and allows for more funding to be allocated to the Department of Defense. In most cases, this is usually funding that was already requested by the department. Still, Congress decided to hold back on some due to some risks, either with rising the national debt too high or were looking out for other departments within the government, which was not better off when it came to their funding considering the limited resources. Finally, the final phase of the defense budget is the execution phase, which allows the Department of Defense to use the funds for buying the necessary goods and services ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ).
Defense Budget Structure
With the budget contents having been approved, it is crucial to note that the DOD budget is presented in three ways.
1) by appropriations title
2) by major force program
3) by component.
As mentioned above, the structure of any budget is crucial, as is the process required in ensuring that it can be presented in various formats. Apart from these traditional ways of presenting the defense budget, other alternative ways are more helpful than specific analytical purposes ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ).
Appropriations Title
This section is concerned with highlighting the various areas the funds already allocated to the DOD will be used. With the present nature of things, there are several appropriation titles. They include
1) Military Personnel – in this section, funds are used to pay for salaries and allowances for every individual, either civilian or military, who works in consignment with the DOD. Additionally, there are other costs relating to training and supports that are also covered.
2) Operations and Maintenance – as with everything, various operations take place within the DOD. Some of these operations include deployments taking place abroad, flying hours for fighting jets, and ship maintenance, among others. All these operations tend to be covered using the DOD budget. On the other hand, there is an aspect of maintenance. Any ship overhaul, system downtime, and tools getting worn out and broken and require refurbishment and fixing this funding cater for that.
3) Procurement – this section is concerned with the acquisition of anything from weapons to training gear.
4) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation – even the DOD needs to conduct some instances of R&D to better improve on their defending capabilities and perform tests and evaluations to understand better the strength and effectiveness of their weapons and training routines. All these cases require immense funding to perfect and get right.
5) Military Construction – this includes the acquisition of construction materials, the fixing, and refurbishment of old buildings, among other things related to the military and their construction needs.
6) Family Housing – the DOD provides family housing, and these housings require funding to maintain and even construct.
7 )Revolving and Management Funds – this section considers DOD stock funds, trust funds, management funds, and industrial funds. Based on other years, it should be noted that the DOD budget has been able to be used to the tune of 95% in just these sections alone ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ).
Defense Budget by Major Force Program
As earlier mentioned, the DOD tends to have a different format for presenting their budget than Congress. However, when doing a presentation to Congress, the DOD tends to recast their budget. Instead of employing the aspect of program elements, they use the format mentioned above of "Appropriation of Titles." Therefore, some of the program elements under the format of Major Force Program include;
1) Strategic Forces
2) General Purpose Forces
3) Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, and Space
4) Mobility Forces
5) Guard and Reserve Forces
6) Research and Development
7) Central Supply and Maintenance
8) Training, Medical, and Other General Personnel Activities
9) Administration and Associated Activities
10) Support of Other Nations and
11) Special Operation Forces. Something worth noting is that these program elements are just a broader representation of the format used under the Appropriations Titles. For the internal DOD system to structure their budget allocations sections, such a manner tends to improve budget programming and allocation ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ).
Defense Budget by Component
It should be noted that the Department of Defense is categorized into four broad components. These components are the Army, Navy (the Marine Corps are included), and Air Force in a Defense-Wide allocation. Based on the Appropriate Titles and the Major Force Program, which contains program elements, these components' various needs are funded together. Furthermore, they happen to be further distributed in the component section to various housing areas under the Army component. With this, the Department of Defense can effectively account for its funding by looking at the various components instead of the long list of program elements seen in the Major Force Program ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ).
Other Alternative Ways
In this structure, there are two broad categories of how the budget plan is formatted. Firstly, under the workforce, all components and elements related to man, power, and general meaning tend to be included. For example, aspects of construction, procurement, and major weapons and training costs tend to be covered under this category. Additionally, salaries, pensions, and wages are also included together with allowances, among others. Secondly, there is Readiness and Modernization – this section caters for aspects of R&D, ensuring deployments and operations are funded, among other major elements associated with the two words ( Tyszkiewicz & Daggett,1998 ). These two broad aspects tend to represent one of the most simple of all formats for the DOD budget structure.
Therefore, national defense spending is given top priority by the federal government. The allocation represents a significant share of the overall government expenditure. Funding provided to the department of defense covers a base budget that covers training, healthcare, maintenance and purchase of arms, equipment and facilities, salaries, military operations, and the development of new technologies. During the decision-making process, allocations are made to maximize the military force's effectiveness, innovation, and continuity. From the information provided above, it is evident that the process is technical and requires critical analysis of the DoD. N the event that the federal government decides to reduce spending in the structure and acquisitions within the department, a nation may be placed at the risk of becoming vulnerable to attacks from terrorist groups.
References
McNamara, K. R., & Musgrave, P. (2020). Democracy and Collective Identity in the EU and the USA. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies , 58 (1), 172-188.
Poole, K. T., & Rosenthal, H. (1991). Patterns of congressional voting. American journal of political science , 228-278.
Rubin, I. S. (2019). The politics of public budgeting: Getting and spending, borrowing and balancing . CQ Press.
Schick, A. (2008). The federal budget: Politics, policy, process . Brookings Institution Press.
Tyszkiewicz, M. T., & Daggett, S. (1998, December). A defense budget primer. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON DC CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE.
