Will be interesting to see if Obama folds on this:
The nation’s top military officer said Wednesday that he expected the Pentagon to ask Congress in the next few months for emergency financing to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though President Obama has pledged to end the Bush administration practice of paying for the conflicts with so-called supplemental funds that are outside the normal Defense Department budget.
The financing would be on top of the $130 billion that Congress authorized for the wars just last month.
Personally, I think it would be supremely irresponsible to act on this legislation without seeing the CBO score. I’m hoping Max Baucus and the blue dogs will get on that, because I’d like to know how this legislation will pay for itself. I suggest we put this off a few months to talk about the costs and how we are robbing future generations.
Oh, wait. This is for the military. Never mind.
soonergrunt
I wonder what, exactly, they need this money for.
I can guarantee that this will pass with little comment.
Nobody knows how to play Congress like the military brass, except for maybe defense contractors.
The Grand Panjandrum
I look forward to Judd Gregg lecturing the President on the irresponsibility of spending money we just don’t have. Any chance we can get Jack Bauer to weigh in? He is an expert on terrrorism.
And congratulations to the Yankees for capturing their 27th World Series championship. The victory parade is tomorrow.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Phew! For a minute there I thought you had lost it.
Remember: Military GOOD, always GOOD.
Brian J
I’m sure the ____________ will pay for itself.
Zifnab
@The Grand Panjandrum: Wow. Just kick us in the nuts twice, why don’t you?
Rather than referring to it as $130 billion. Can we just call it 2/7th of a health care? Oh, no wait. This would be over one year, not over ten. So I guess closer to 1.4 health cares.
Svensker
I believe we’ll all be dead of old age before Joe Wilson stands up to call out Obama for this.
El Cid
Wait — you meant that this would be decided by the governors of NJ & VA, right? I mean, that’s where the seat of government is now, isn’t it? That’s what I gather.
Leelee for Obama
@El Cid: FTW! After this off-year, barely noticeable election, it’s become clear to me that the New Federalism will save this nation due to the Governors’ super-powers to stop all spending that the locals don’t like, no matter what. We will all be free and NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE will die of old age, because no one will live that long. Between bad food, bad roads, no police or firefighters, no health-care-it will be attrition of the weakest or unluckiest (orleast blessed, if you’re into that meme) in the herd, and all will be well in the land.
The Moar You Know
This is why we can’t have nice things.
I know this is a lot to ask, but can Obama and the Congress, between them, cough up a pair of balls and spine and get us the fuck out of this quagmire?
If we can’t afford health care for everyone and a stimulus, we damn sure can’t afford to be fighting two wars halfway across the world.
The Republicans always bitch about Democrats being fiscally irresponsible. They are right – not in the way they’d like to be, but they are right. Passing a $130 billion dollar supplemental on top of the largest defense bill ever passed is fucking irresponsible as hell.
The only upside to the Democratic party at this point in history is that at least some of them are trying to do the right thing and take care of the same citizens who are going to be paying for this quagmire well into the 22nd century by getting us a shitty, watered-down healthcare plan in exchange for dumping a huge percentage of our GDP down the military’s rabbit hole, never to be seen again. Thanks. I guess.
Ash Can
‘Cuz if you don’t go along with the DoD whenever it feels like shaking down the country, you’re hatin’ on the troops, don’tcha know.
Brian J
Via Dean Baker’s Center for Economic and Policy Research, some research says:
Legalize
I want each item funded by this $130 billion to be posted online so that I can read through and decide which items are waste and which items are legitimate. Read. The. Bill. Also.
cleek
i think we need some more debate on this. no point in ramming it down our throats unless you’re going to pay for the doctor’s visit i’ll need afterward.
Dan
Ummm… isn’t this excellent news for conservatives?
Leelee for Obama
@cleek: Chuckling here! Thanks, cleek!
Breth
Why do you hate the troops?
Chad N Freude
@Leelee for Obama:
This was pioneered by California’s much beloved Governor Schwarzenegger, who started off by arranging a give-back on automobile taxes, preceded by a mailing, that cost a million bucks more or less, of letters to recipients telling them their checks were in the mail. Really!
Bulworth
But, but, but, unlike money for terrible health care entitlements, this money is for our wars, which are only temporary. And the next six months are critical…
ChrisS
Now, now, the military is one of the three Randian acceptable roles that Government can perform.
Thus is it is free from all oversight.
Though since about 1945, Matters of National Security have morphed from invading armies climbing over the beacheads to multi-national corporations not being able to get favorable terms from a foreign government.
Rick Taylor
You nailed it as you so often do. I haven’t a clue why it’s desirable and acceptable to spend trillions on keeping armies to fight wars all over the globe, while increasing the deficit to support health care for Americans is considered irresponsible. And this isn’t the conservative view, this is the moderate view, embraced by every administration including the current one. You have to be a left wing loony to even consider the idea, hey, what could we do with the money if we decided we didn’t need to be the world’s super-cop, and slashed defense by an order of magnitude.
4tehlulz
In before F-22 funding amendment.
flukebucket
Place your bets.
The Moar You Know
@flukebucket: Wouldn’t bet a dime. Dem politicians have, for my entire life, had a conditioned inferiority complex regarding military matters. They’ll roll over like a daily-beaten dog.
liberal
@Bulworth:
Yeah, that’s what the Wash Post thinks. So it’s gotta be true!
slag
I always just assumed that all that teabagger talk about “limited government” was code for “military dictatorship”. You’re saying that’s wrong.
WereBear
It would be more understandable if they were all about service to the country, strong defense, yadda yadda. But they also want to throw away those same soldiers like stained dishtowels if they need care of any kind… and they complained about giving them a raise a few years ago.
They’re just twisted.
NutellaonToast
American tax dollars can only be spent on noble pursuits such as killing people. Saving lives is a god damn waste of money.
Mike G
Cue hordes of teabaggers in the street *outraged* at this waste of tens of billions of dollars…
*crickets*
They’re too busy masturbating at the thought of all that American killing power being unleashed on scary brown people.
Sue
Ok, here’s how we do it:
We hire people to review the cost of medical and emotional care of the soldiers coming home from these wars, soldiers who are mangled in body and spirit, and we start denying them what they need. We either deny them outright or we stonewall forever. Eventually they’ll go away, either by wearing them down to the point where they stop asking for help or getting them to commit suicide. Think of the savings!
Wait. That was the last administration. This administration has made sure that VA appropriations are guaranteed, no waiting after the first of the year, and included a nice budget increase too.
Damn. How ARE we going to pay for this?
NutellaonToast
Frankly, I don’t see why we should pay for soldier’s medical care. If they weren’t such crappy soldiers they wouldn’t have gotten injured. It was only their lack of resolve that set of that IED.
norbizness
If there’s another completely inefficient, debt-inflating way to create tens of thousands of dead and injured people and to make sure nobody worldwide likes us for several generations, I’d like to hear it!
Luthe
Can we get Holy Joe to weight in on this? I mean, if we can’t afford health care reform in a recession, what can we afford?
Mike G
The problem is the government-run soshulist medical care we give to soldiers. They should get tax cuts and purchase coverage from private insurers, who are all eager to insure combat soldiers in Iraq at reasonable rates because the market is magical. Then a pony will appear.
Tuffy
John, this is one of your best posts. It sums up a lot of the hypocrisy and bullshit and madness in the current public discourse as succintly as a needle in the eye.
Reason60
There just has to be a constant drumbeat-
There is no such thing as a pro-war fiscal conservative.
I get weary of pointing this out on conservative blogs, when I see the same trope about “I am a strong on defense fiscal conservative” when those two statements directly contradict each other.
The only answer to such idiocy is a constant pounding of the drum of reason and logic.
Pangloss
We are passing on this bill to our children! We must be fiscally re… spon… sib….. Kitchen table… tough decisions…..
Nevermind.
Phoenix Woman
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
Remember the days when Democrats had no problems with establishment war profiteering tribunals — during and after World War Two, even?
Phoenix Woman
@Phoenix Woman: Ack. Make that “establishing”.
Thadeus Horne
@Tuffy: I agree, Tuff and kudos John. It does sum up the problem. But, the question remains; how to cut through all that hypocrisy and bullshit and get to a realistic solution. I don’t have any idea how to break that power lock that the military- industrial complex has over our elected officials. Do you?
You can talk about ending the wars, but the truth is, it’s just too fucking profitable for these guys.
They’re pigs at the trough.
mai naem
I am sure Joe Lieberman is going to hold a press conference about how he’s going to filibuster the bill funding this because it’s an entitlement and how Obama is doing too much at one time. And I am sure Olympia Snowe is going to ask for cuts in the request because of the impact on the deficit and ,hell, I am sure Obama is going to ask for it to be deficit neutral.