Shutting off the money-tap

The curtain is about to fall on the folly of "paying for" two wars with tax-cuts and off-budget appropriations. When the Democrats take over in three short weeks, the piecemeal way these wars have been prosecuted will come to an end. Congress is going to look at where exactly the $2 Billion dollars a week that Iraq is costing is actually going.

(Can I take a moment here and clamor - yet again - for an investigative body along the lines of the Truman Committee to investigate war profiteering?)

In a strong overture that they intend to exercise tight control over the power of the purse, the incoming Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate Budget Committees indicated that they would be demanding a better accounting of the war’s cost. They also stated their intent to move toward integrating the spending into the regular federal budget, which will put the war costs in the budget. Thus far, they have been hidden and the war has been fought on resolutions. The Three Card Monte method of war financing is done. Vice is shutting down the corner.

Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Representative John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, the incoming chairmen of the Budget Committes in their respective chambers have been blunt in stating that the administration’s approach of paying for extended military combat operations and related combat support activities through a seemingly endless series of "emergency requests" had inhibited Congressional scrutiny of the spending and had effectively hidden the true price of the war.

“They have been playing hide-the-ball,” Mr. Conrad said, “and that does not serve the Congress well nor the country well, and we are not going to continue that practice.”

Mr. Spratt, who along with Mr. Conrad is examining how the Democratic Congress should funnel the war spending requests through the House and Senate, said, “We need to have a better breakout of the costs — period.”

Meantime, the administration’s view is still what it has always been: Bush is a Unitary Executive, and Congress can not “bind how the president wants to put together the budget.” (Maybe not, but the congress still has to approve it.)

Make no mistake - we are going to see bruising battles over the budget and spending. The President and his party are going to try to paint the Democrats as Defeat-o-crats for demandign accountability, so we have to be ready and shoot down their bull-shit before the landing gear is raised.

They lost. They don't get to frame the debate. They don't get to pose false comparisons or analogies. They don't get to stand on the sidelines and say "What's your plan then? Hmmm?" and nit-pick the process while we clean up the mess they made.

No, they get to sit down and shut up for a change. They get to watch while the grown-ups get the ship of state off the shoals.

They also need a crash-course in humility, but that's a rant unto itself.

However, I think that day might be dawning, because the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that fully 59% of the American public would not vote for a hypothetical candidate simply because they had served in the Bush administration.

We have a presidnet who has for his entire term of office refused to deal with reality. Now, reality is about to deal with him.

Pop some corn and enjoy the show. It's gonna get good.

I am loath to even mention the Kerry debacle...

It really should be a non-issue, but it isn't. Still, I am not going to scream for the head of a decorated veteran for botching a joke that was clearly intended to be a swipe at the president and his top civilian military advisors. Instead, I think I will examine the record of this administration with regard to the troops and the war.

The Republicans are the party that ended full support of the Afghan War before that mission was completed. Now the Taliban is back and Afghanistan is a failed state.

The Republicans are the party that basically fabricated reasons for launching a war. The one we were fighting was just and justified. But they had to go into Iraq.

The Republicans are the party that rushed headlong into a war with such wild abandon that the troops went in without the appropriate vehicle or body armor.

The Republicans are the party of Rumsfeld, who threatened to fire the very next senior military official who brought up post-war planning. This is the short-sighted buffoon that the president just today claimed is doing a fine job and he wants him to remain in his job another two years.

The Republicans are the party that refused to send in enough troops to stablize the country in the post major conflict phase because Rumsfeld wanted to try out his theories regarding a "streamlined" force.

The Republicans are the party that has overextended the military and the National Guard, to the point that the various branches have had to resort to all sorts of measures that had never been used before. They have called up inactive reserves, instituted a back-door draft with stop-loss policies, and they have breached the promises made to those who serve. A date that a tour will end is a sacred thing. When this date means nothing, a sacred trust is violated.

The Republicans are the party that has lied, repeatedly and routinely, about the conditions in Iraq.

The Republicans are the party of the President that has already declared that we are there for as long as he is president and the next inhabitant of the oval will have to clean the mess up.

The Republicans are the party that has refused to do anything to increase the size of the armed forces because it would be politically unpopular.

The Republicans are the party that has refused to allow the coffins of the fallen to be photographed at Dover AFB as they make their final journey home.

The Republicans are the party that claims exclusive loyalty of the troops in uniform, yet the Army is short 3500 officers throughout the ranks, and the Army Reserves is short 11,000 Lieutenants and Captains. Prior to this administration, there were waiting lists for OCS in all of the branches. Now, no one is getting turned down who applies, and very few are washing out.

The Republicans are the party that has cut research and rehab funding for troops returning to civilian life after traumatic brain injuries suffered in combat.

The Republicans are the party that have increased Tri-Care deductibles and co-pays while reducing military benefits. (My husband is a retiree and we don't even bother. We have private insurance and use our Tri-Care as secondary.)

The Republicans are the party that have reduced retiree benefits on people like my husband who never flinched once and did his duty with honor for twenty-four years.

The Republicans are the party that never met a promise to Veterans they couldn't wait to break.

These are much more eggregious offenses than a botched joke, just for the record.

Where is the outrage about these things?

Countering the spin

If you listen to the Republican political ads, they would have you believe that the American people must stay with Republican control of the congress or terrorists will kill us all.

They want you to believe that only they can make America safer.

I think we should examine that record.

They abandoned the Agreed Framework, and North Korea detonated a nuclear device.

Osama bin Laden is still free, releasing the occasional video to remind us he is out there, taunting. Bush said he doesn't think about him. Remember that? Osama was the one who orchestrated the attacks on the Cole, the embassies and September 11. He lives a free man today, with all that blood on his hands.

Iraq creates new terrorists every day. Sixteen intelligence agencies say so.

The war in Afghanistan is being lost by neglect, becaue we are bogged down in Iraq.

And New Orleans was left to drown.

Yes. These are the people who want you to believe that only they can make you safe.

If you believe them, you are dead wrong.