Military Budget Cut
Our nation has bigger problems than immigration but Bush needs something to rally his right wing base. I'm just surprised at where he decided to get the funding for border patrol; Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has the UPI story:
UPI: "When the Senate took $1.9 billion out of the war supplemental to fund border security last month, $1.6 billion came out of funds to replace equipment destroyed or worn out from four years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.First, the 'political unrest' about illegal immigration has largely been driven by the right wing media, probably with help from people like Karl Rove. But it sounds like the Army and Marines were not consulted about the diverted funds. It's probably just one more thing the Bush Administration has mishandled. On the other hand, when Bush is not pleased, he likes to punish those who have offended him and this would be in line with his method. I wonder what the story is.
The money was diverted at the behest of the White House in a last-minute bid to address growing political unrest about illegal immigration...."
posted by Craig at 8:25 PM
3 Comments:
It's an election year and Republicans have already short-sheeted and shafted just about everyone but their favored millionaires/billionaires, big corporations and the Pentagon. They probably figure if they take any more out of discretionary and entitlement programs, it might cost them in November.
That $1.6 billion in what I'm sure Bush's big thinkers consider highly deferable spending represents a drop in the military bucket.
Next year, after the election, they'll have plenty of time to figure out who to put the squeeze on to make it up.
S.W., you're probably right. And yet, there's so much boondoggle money in the Pentagon budget to choose from, it just seemed strange to take it out of the money needed to replace equipment we've lost in Iraq.
Let's hope in the end the military in Iraq gets the equipment they need, not the equipment that special connections to top Republicans gives them regardless of whether they need it or not.
Truly, there's no telling. If you happened to see Olbermann's show last night, he had Colin Powell's former staff chief on (Col. or General Walker?). He said whoever inherits the mess left by Bush and this Congress will be staggered by the cost of restoring the military, both as to manpower and material. He said billions and billions, with a decade for the manpower.
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