Budget control act fallout still unclear.

Three years since the law was enacted on August 2, 2011, it is fair to say that Washington has officially given up hope.

The law--which brought to an end a debt-ceiling showdown that had threatened to lead the United States into default and set strict limits to discretionary domestic and military spending through 2021--is here to stay, at least through the end of the Obama administration. The government continues to absorb steep spending cuts of up to a trillion dollars over the next decade, the federal deficit has plummeted, and congressional fiscal hawks hail the BCA as a win for the taxpayers.

No agency has pleaded for relief from the BCA as eagerly as the Defense Department, the largest spender of discretionary federal dollars. The Pentagon's top generals are still in disbelief that their push to overturn sequestration has been...