SHIRKERS: Mattis Blasts Congress Over Defense Budget.

In his toughest language to date, Mattis — along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford and Pentagon Comptroller David Norquist — called on Congress to pass a budget for fiscal year 2018, on time.

“I need bipartisan support for this budget,” Mattis said of President Trump’s $639 billion funding request for the Defense Department. That includes $574 billion for the Pentagon “base budget” and nearly $65 billion for overseas operations.

Mattis repeated what other defense officials during President Obama’s years have said over and over, the military’s combat readiness is eroding, weapon modernization plans are at risk, and still, the inaction continues. And he delivered a sharp rebuke: “Congress as a whole has met the present challenge with lassitude, not leadership.

He then continued to pile on, observing that Congress has “sidelined itself from its active constitutional oversight role.”

And not just on defense spending, either.