Higher mlitary spending or more Blackwaters are on the way. That's the inevitable conclusion from today's "Budget Battles" on nationaljournal.com.

Here's the key point: the increased use of expensive contractors was inevitable given the federal budget politics that encouraged the White House and Capitol Hill to underestimate the military threat to the United States and the forces needed to deal with it so that  lower costs could be projected.

My strong guess is that this same situation is being played out in many many other federal agencies and departments but, because those contractors don't use automatic weapons or shoot civilians, they have not gotten the same level of scrutiny.

The result is simple: the almost certain response from lawmakers will be to limit the use fo contractors without reducing the mission of the agencies and departments involved. That will lead to more federal domestic and military agencies.