Before the Thanksgiving break, Democrats tried once again to end the march to Victory in the Battle for Iraq.
Appropriators had crafted a $50 billion “bridge fund” for near-term war operations, intending to consider the rest of Bush’s request when Congress returns to work after the holidays. But Bush has refused to consider the package because Democratic leaders have attached language mandating the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Not having the appropriations is making some enumerate dire consequences to the actions of the Democrats
“When we run out of money from the base budget and we do not have a supplemental budget to fund the global war on terror, we have no more means by which to fund the war,” Geoff Morrell, the Defense Department press secretary, said in the latest in a series of warnings to lawmakers about the potential consequences looming for the services.
Operations at all Army and Marine Corps bases would be “all but shut down,” he said, and the Defense Department would able to provide only the most basic safety and security for residents.
The Navy and Air Force would also run out of money for operations and maintenance later in the year, but Morrell could not estimate when that could happen.
The Pentagon also will have to begin notifying about 200,000 civilian and contract workers just before Christmas that without new funding, they will be furloughed “within a matter of weeks,” Morrell said.To help bridge the gap in war funding, separate from the regular annual defense budget recently enacted, Morrell said Defense Secretary Robert Gates has notified Congress that he proposes to transfer a total of $3.7 billion from Navy and Air Force payroll accounts, a move that would require approval from Congress. Gates also plans to spend $800 million in excess working capital funds.
Senators McCain, Coburn and DeMint actually got the ball rolling by writing this to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
As you develop contingency plans to keep funding available for the troops in harm's way, we strongly urge you to cut unnecessary Congressional earmarks as your first source of funding.
The Defense Appropriations bill President Bush recently signed contains over 2.000 earmarks accounting for over $5 billion in wasteful spending. These projects divert critical defense resources from our men and women in combat to projects such as studying brown tree snakes and funding youth golf programs.
In fact, let's start with Representative John Murtha, critic of the war, false accuser of Marines, but Defense pork king
If John Murtha were a businessman, he'd be the biggest employer in this town.
The powerful U.S. congressman has used his clout on Capitol Hill to create thousands of jobs and steer billions of dollars in federal spending to help his hometown in western Pennsylvania recover from devastating floods and the flight of its steelmakers.
More is on the way. In the massive 2008 military-spending bill now before Congress -- which could go to a House-Senate conference as soon as Thursday -- Mr. Murtha has steered more taxpayer funds to his congressional district than any other member. The Democratic lawmaker is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which will oversee more than $459 billion in military spending this year.
Johnstown's good fortune has come at the expense of taxpayers everywhere else. Defense contractors have found that if they open an office here and hire the right lobbyist, they can get lucrative, no-bid contracts. Over the past decade, Concurrent Technologies Corp., a defense-research firm that employs 800 here, got hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Rep. Murtha despite poor reviews by Pentagon auditors. The National Drug Intelligence Center, with 300 workers, got $509 million, though the White House has tried for years to shut it down as wasteful and unnecessary. Another beneficiary: MTS Technologies, run by a man who got his start some 40 years ago shining shoes at Mr. Murtha's Johnstown Minute Car Wash.
Sounds like a good place to start, eh? But why stop there? How about Senator Feinstein's pork?
As chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005, Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year for specific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interests were largely controlled by her husband, financier Richard C. Blum, benefited from decisions made by Feinstein as leader of this powerful subcommittee.
Each year, MILCON's members decide which military construction projects will be funded from a roster proposed by the Department of Defense. Contracts to build these specific projects are subsequently awarded to such major defense contractors as Halliburton, Fluor, Parsons, Louis Berger, URS Corporation and Perini Corporation. From 1997 through the end of 2005, with Feinstein's knowledge, Blum was a majority owner of both URS Corp. and Perini Corp.
While setting MILCON agendas for many years, Feinstein, 73, supervised her own staff of military construction experts as they carefully examined the details of each proposal. She lobbied Pentagon officials in public hearings to support defense projects that she favored, some of which already were or subsequently became URS or Perini contracts. From 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by MILCON; Perini earned $759 million from such MILCON projects.
In her annual Public Financial Disclosure Reports, Feinstein records a sizeable family income from large investments in Perini, which is based in Framingham, Mass., and in URS, headquartered in San Francisco. But she has not publicly acknowledged the conflict of interest between her job as a congressional appropriator and her husband's longtime control of Perini and URS--and that omission has called her ethical standards into question, say the experts.
The tale thickens with the appearance of Michael R. Klein, a top legal adviser to Feinstein and a long-time business partner of Blum's. The vice-chairman of Perini's board of directors, Klein was a partner in Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, a powerful law firm with close ties to the Democratic Party, for nearly 30 years. Klein and Blum co-own ASTAR Air Cargo, which has military contracts in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Klein also sits on the board of SRA International, a large defense contractor.
In an interview with this reporter in September, Klein stated that, beginning in 1997, he routinely informed Feinstein about specific federal projects coming before her in which Perini had a stake. The insider information, Klein said, was intended to help the senator avoid conflicts of interest. Although Klein's startling admission was intended to defuse the issue of Feinstein's conflict of interest, it had the effect of exacerbating it.
Of course, this may be closing the barn door well after the horse left for his morning constitutional because Senator Feinstein resigned from MILCON after these revelations. But still, we could check
In fact, there is so much pork in the Defense bill finding pork is easy;
it's a target rich environment.
