The Capitol this week was more like a German Opera, but we’ll invoke a little Motown sound to describe how some Members of Congress are treating the Pentagon. Because when it comes to spending, there is no doubt a certain segment of Congress believes in giving the Pentagon “More Love.”

In case you’re not a devotee of 60s music, the singer urges to, “Let it be soon, don’t hesitate. Make it now, don’t wait.” And that’s exactly the approach of the final version of the Pentagon policy bill, called the “NDAA” (for National Defense Authorization Act) in acronym-happy Washington. Continuing the love song theme, lawmakers are intent to “Keep It Coming Love.”

Nowhere is that “Whole Lotta Love” more apparent than in the overall funding levels: $515 billion for the so-called “base budget” PLUS a whopping $89.2 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) slush fund. And for those of you who didn’t do the math in your head – that’s a $604.2 billion “Love Bomb” for the Pentagon for Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16.)  The OCO funding is “A Big Hunk O’ Love” in an attempt to get around budget caps that have been placed on the base budget.

Think back to the “Peace, Love and Understanding” that led to the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 (just kidding, it was a slug fest over the debt ceiling). “After the Love [Was] Gone” for the Super Committee and their failed effort to find $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, the BCA set ceilings with some parity for defense and non-defense spending. But the BCA ceilings weren’t designed to contain the “off-budget” spending available pretty much exclusively to the Pentagon under OCO. And so, while the rest of the federal agencies have been “All Out of Love” and had to produce budgets within those caps, the Pentagon has had an extra pool of money to let “Love Reign O’er [them].” “How Deep is [Their] Love?” Well, with OCO amounts of $159 billion in FY11, $115 billion in FY12, $82 billion in FY13, $85 billion in FY14, $64 billion in FY15 and the President’s most recent request for FY16 of $51 billion you can pretty much guarantee that they have become “Addicted to Love.”

You don’t need “Radar Love” to find the correlation: as our overseas commitments have ratcheted down, the OCO account has trended down. But Congress, or at least some factions, have been dueling this year to not “Let Love Down” and steeply increase the money in this off-budget, funny money, slush fund. It started with the House and Senate Budget Resolutions earlier this year and continues as we slog toward the passage of both Pentagon policy and spending bills.

Even outside of OCO, the NDAA would add billions of dollars to accounts where even the Pentagon didn’t say “I Need Love” – such as more F-35s than requested, money for F/A-18 “Super Hornets” and funds to make sure the A-10 isn’t retired. And while we’ve pointed out these legacy aircraft are available to fill the role of the shockingly expensive F-35, the only way you save money by maintaining the A-10 and the Super Hornet is by not buying the F-35! But if you have an extra $39 or so billion dollars to spend – it has to go somewhere. For taxpayers, “Love Hurts.”