Topic: Iraq
U.S. Senate Agrees to Fund Another Year in Iraq US Senate passes $165 Billion war funding bill by a 70-26 vote. I'm screaming at my television.by Bob Nightingale
(libertarian)
Friday, May 23, 2008
It's about bedtime last night. I'm watching the local news, and my wife is falling asleep in the easy chair next to me. I start yelling at the TV, "You idiots! You did it again!" She's half asleep, looks over at me and asks "what is it this time?"
I tell her the Senate just passed a $165 billion dollar spending bill for new money to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She says "figures" and tells me she's got to get up early in the morning for a meeting. She leaves the room and I rewind the DVR so I can hear it again.
Apparently the original White House request was for $110 billion, but by the time it got through the Senate, several other pet projects that had nothing to with the war effort got tacked on, including money to feed the poor in this country. Those voting against this bill included Obama and Clinton. McCain, instead of voting on this bill, was still campaigning in North Carolina. From there he is going to do some grilling for the Memorial Day weekend at his home. He'll be grilling a running mate for this November's general election. Mitt Romney will be among his honored guests.
This Reuters article gives a good recap of what went down yesterday. It also mentions that the Pentagon can't account for $15 in funding from the last round of spending in Iraq. That's the entire year's worth of spending on NASA!
So while McCain was too busy to vote up or down on that bill, he was critical of the Webb GI funding bill saying it was too much. McCain missed voting on that bill too. McCain believes if you give too many benefits to the military, they will walk off the battlefield and go to college. It's hard to walk off anywhere if you're missing limbs or have a brain injury.
Of course, there were Senators this week that had a solution for the retention problem. After calculating that it costs an average of $125,000 per service member to keep an all-volunteer military, several Senators are now considering a draft.
So this Memorial Day weekend, let's pray for the 4,000 Americans who have died in this conflict so far. It seems that we're going to need a higher power than the U.S. Senate to end this war. My TV isn't listening.
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