This time around, the new $33 billion emergency supplemental request for Afghanistan war funding, they are no longer saying this will be the last supplemental funding request. The funding Pres. Obama said would not happen in his administration-- all war funding would be up front in the budget.
The Auburn Journal reports:
By Reps. Michael Honda (D-Calif.), Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) - 07/01/10 09:26 AM ET
"It is disingenuous to say this is an “emergency” supplemental. The only “emergency” is this: In funding the longest war in history, we are putting America further into debt with China, expanding the deficit, increasing wasteful government spending, undermining our budgetary process, risking Social Security and solidifying debt that military leaders call our number one national security threat.
The Iraq Study Group argued in 2006 that the government should stop funding the wars with emergency supplemental appropriation bills that avoid budgetary restrictions. Last year, President Obama pledged to stop these off-budget gimmicks to hide the cost of war. Last week, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited debt as the number one threat to America’s national security. This week, House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) stated that “We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we're broke," proposing to cut Social Security to pay for the war.
Our challenge: If you oppose deficit spending, debt dependency on China and cuts to Social Security, and are concerned about a debt-threat to our national security, then oppose this bill.
Congressman John Conyers. He’s the chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the co-chair of the "Out of Afghanistan" caucus. He’s speaking today at a press conference with other lawmakers opposed to the $33 billion earmarked for the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. The funding is contained in the supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010. The press conference is being held one day after the end of the bloodiest month for international troops in Afghanistan.
REP. JOHN CONYERS: Well, it’s never been clear to me that through war we can bring peace, especially when we’re the invaders, we’re the ones using drones. We’re causing civilian deaths to many people who would otherwise be more friendly to us. We’re creating the terrorists. This is not being lost on most of the people in the country now. Our constituents now want us out of both Afghanistan and Iraq, and what we’re doing now is forming a way to discuss this with our president in an effort to make him more comfortable with doing what most people want him to do and what we thought he was going to do in the first place, namely, to clearly disengage from the military, increase the diplomatic activity, and bring in some help in terms of food supplies, aid, and positive build up of these countries and to make as many friends as we can over there rather than this ninth year of what has now become a debacle in every respect.
The War is Making You Poor is a brilliant device by Grayson, my colleague Alan Grayson, in which we’re doing just three things. One, we limit the amount of funding of the wars in both countries. We eliminate the federal tax on all Americans that make less than $35,000 a year. And as a result, and this has been confirmed by the Joint Committee on taxation, we reduce the debt by almost $16 billion. Our debt. So it’s a combination of things that are happening now, Amy, that make it clear to more and more members of Congress that you can’t keep a straight face on all of this incredible indebtedness, talk about all of the money that we have shoveled out to Wall Street and credit isn’t loosening up, unemployment is still at all-time highs. We’re projected in Detroit to have more foreclosures on homes than last year. So we’ve got to turn with especially all of the shouts about being fiscally conservative, the way to climb out of this is to reduce the obligations of our government. Here we are in hundreds of billions of dollars of war debt and our President is saying we now have to have an emergency funding which is merely another way of saying we’re going to specially fund the Afghanistan surge. It makes no sense and I think militarily it is not logical and of course morally, I can’t remember anything like this since Korea and Vietnam, to be honest with you."
"It is disingenuous to say this is an “emergency” supplemental. The only “emergency” is this: In funding the longest war in history, we are putting America further into debt with China, expanding the deficit, increasing wasteful government spending, undermining our budgetary process, risking Social Security and solidifying debt that military leaders call our number one national security threat.
The Iraq Study Group argued in 2006 that the government should stop funding the wars with emergency supplemental appropriation bills that avoid budgetary restrictions. Last year, President Obama pledged to stop these off-budget gimmicks to hide the cost of war. Last week, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited debt as the number one threat to America’s national security. This week, House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) stated that “We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we're broke," proposing to cut Social Security to pay for the war.
Our challenge: If you oppose deficit spending, debt dependency on China and cuts to Social Security, and are concerned about a debt-threat to our national security, then oppose this bill.
Congressman John Conyers. He’s the chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the co-chair of the "Out of Afghanistan" caucus. He’s speaking today at a press conference with other lawmakers opposed to the $33 billion earmarked for the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. The funding is contained in the supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010. The press conference is being held one day after the end of the bloodiest month for international troops in Afghanistan.
The War is Making You Poor is a brilliant device by Grayson, my colleague Alan Grayson, in which we’re doing just three things. One, we limit the amount of funding of the wars in both countries. We eliminate the federal tax on all Americans that make less than $35,000 a year. And as a result, and this has been confirmed by the Joint Committee on taxation, we reduce the debt by almost $16 billion. Our debt. So it’s a combination of things that are happening now, Amy, that make it clear to more and more members of Congress that you can’t keep a straight face on all of this incredible indebtedness, talk about all of the money that we have shoveled out to Wall Street and credit isn’t loosening up, unemployment is still at all-time highs. We’re projected in Detroit to have more foreclosures on homes than last year. So we’ve got to turn with especially all of the shouts about being fiscally conservative, the way to climb out of this is to reduce the obligations of our government. Here we are in hundreds of billions of dollars of war debt and our President is saying we now have to have an emergency funding which is merely another way of saying we’re going to specially fund the Afghanistan surge. It makes no sense and I think militarily it is not logical and of course morally, I can’t remember anything like this since Korea and Vietnam, to be honest with you."
3 comments:
I think that sign says it all: THE CHANGE SUCKS!
Oregon has a $3.8 billion dollar deficit & California a $19 billion deficit.
They are slashing school budgets & every other program they can (except favorite pet projects).
So every time more $ goes to war, it steals money from programs we need funded in the US.
Hell we could even wean ourselves off the fricking oil by diverting war budgets to truly safe & clean alternative energies, such as solar, wind & water.
Ir is not just a matter of spending on war, but it takes away from a nation really hurting for jobs. If the big bad superpower USA could not get the job done in Afghanistan in over 9 years..... then we need to get out.
I feel like we've given Obama lots of passes on so many topics-- but this really is just more of the same crapola Bush served up.
We have to stop thinking war & war funding is a priority. Seriously! STOP!
if they would stop funding the bullshit that the military can easily live without, we could make sure the unemployed would have a lifeline. generals don't need to be traveling around in tricked-out jets. let them stay where they are and do their jobs. there's no reason to pay for outdated planes and ships just to make sure certain senators and reps can brag about the pork they brought home. cut out the bullshit, even if they just use the money to pay the soldiers more.
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