$160B Still Puts Army in Red

You try living on a measly $160 billion a year. The Army can't, apparently. Despite a truly massive annual budget, beefed up by "supplemental" checks to pay for the war, "the Army still will come up $1.6 billion short in its operation and maintenance accounts by the end of September," Inside Defense reports.
Lt. Gen. Jerry Sinn... traced the problem to two different sources: first, an $800 million reprogramming action used to purchase communications and electronics equipment, and second, another $800 million used to bolster the service's recruiting and retention efforts that have flagged since the beginning of the year.
In order to dig itself out of the $1.6 billion hole, the service will look to Congress, or wait to use money in the first weeks of the next fiscal year...
"You would think that with that incredible amount of money, that in the waning days of this [fiscal year], wed be in great shape. The answer is we are not," Sinn said.
But what's the incentive for financial discipline, if you can always ask -- and receive -- more cash from the Hill?