Senate Passes Huge War-Funding Bill Under Cover Of Wall Street Bailout Hooha

[bigtree]

from HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tommy-news/senate-slips-huge-war-fun_b_130592.html


September 30, 2008 | 01:14 PM (EST)

US Senators, under the cover of darkness late Saturday night, with the distraction of the Wall Street bailout negotiations ongoing, quietly voted on and passed an enormous spending bill that gives an additional $488 billion dollars to the Bush Administration and the Pentagon for funding of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There has been a near media blackout of the vote, Senate vote 00208 on H.R. 2638, while reporters concentrate coverage on the doomed Wall Street bailout bill and its replacements. While we have all been preoccupied with the $700 billion bail-out of Wall Street, boggled by the dollar amount and the need to raise the national debt limit and borrow from foreign nations to fund it, the bill passed Saturday for the wars and contained a comparably staggering amount of tax money. The bill would give the Pentagon funding to continue the Bush wars well into the next administration.

The Pentagon is in line for a record budget. In addition to $70 billion approved this summer for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department would receive $488 billion, a 6 percent increase. The spending bill was bundled in with a bill which also offers aid to victims of flooding in the Midwest and recent hurricanes across the Gulf Coast. The total cost of the spending legislation exceeds $630 billion.

Such a huge bill usually would dominate the end-of-session agenda on Capitol Hill. But this time it passed below the radar. The bill was quietly rushed to Bush's desk to be signed into law . . .

[tosh]

1. shock & awe

[pleah]

2. Knew something was getting buried in the news because of this. n/t

[Cleita]

3. We can't take our eyes off of them for a minute.

I wonder if John McCain knew his distraction would enable them to do this?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. You bet he knew...

Murrica first. :grr:

[MadrasT]

5. Those motherfuckers. That is all. n/t

[tama]

6. US needs to collapse

if there is no other way to get rid of the military-industrial complex.

[2Design]

7. where is the list of who voted for this -

I want the yes and no

did mccain and obama

I assume kucinch voted nay

[reggie the dog]

9. Kucinich is a representative

I hope the house will not pass this.

[mike_c]

8. piss on them all....

This is utterly insane. THESE are the "leaders" who can solve America's problems? I don't think so.

[bigtree]

10. kick

:kick:

[OneBlueSky]

11. un-be-fucking-lievable . . . these wars are black holes into which . . .

the U.S. Congress and the president periodically dump huge piles of cash that the U.S. Treasury don't even have . . .

billions for killing and destruction, but not one cent for universal healthcare! . . .

and we wonder why there's no money for anything else . . .

[kentuck]

12. Indeed, we are all prisoners of war...

:-( $700 billion for defense and not a murmur...

[bigtree]

13. It's only less than $100 billion below than the last one the Democratic-controlled Congress passed.

I think the closest in the world is Russia or China, I forget, at about $80 billion.

[VP505]

14. Worse than just passing the bill in the dead of night.

Not only did they sneak this through at night while everyone was distracted, the DOD funding is buried in what is called "Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008". It was described as "A bill making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and for other purposes." Here are the links to the votes.http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00208 http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00207 Here is a link to the text of the bill.http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR2638:

[bdamomma]

15. oh crap, this is not a democracy no longer.

seeking bills in and we the voters do not know crap.

[Winterblues]

16. Thank God we have a Democratic Majority

Yeah..More War and Death and Destruction... Hooray... whoopie we're all gunna die

[bdamomma]

17. kick

[RiverStone]

18. Remember when the weeks leading up to such votes signaled mass rallies and protest marches?

Damn, I marched on a couple of occasions with over 10,000 people in downtown Portland. We shut the town down for a couple of hours. Now this shit passes in the night and hardly anybody noticed!

Somehow, the pukes have woven Shrub's illegal war of aggression into what normally gets funded. And far more Americans knew which teams were going to be playing on Sunday Night Football than about the multi-billion dollar vote which happened the day before.


:wtf:!

[crickets]

19. "The spending bill was bundled in..."

The spending bill was bundled in with a bill which also offers aid to victims of flooding in the Midwest and recent hurricanes across the Gulf Coast.

Sound familiar? :eyes:

There was a whole bunch of stuff bundled into this bill, including $100 million for REAL ID.
http://www.privacylives.com/congress-budgets-100-million-for-real-id-national-identification-system/2008/09/29/

$7.5 billion to support $25 billion in loans to assist American auto manufacturers to retool their factories in order to build more fuel efficient cars and trucks - wait, isn't this part of their normal operating costs? Why the hell should taxpayers help them retool when fuel efficiency has been an issue for over thirty years now? Isn't growth and change to match consumer needs and trends part of the normal operating costs of any business? If they hadn't been so busy trying to shove hummers and SUVs down everyone's throats...

http://dpc.senate.gov/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=lb-110-2-153

Everything from offshore drilling to WIC to LIHEAP to Pell is bundled together in a crazy quilt way. There is some actual disaster aid in there, as well as funds directed to military families, hospitals and medical care, but it shouldn't be lumped together.

Put the disaster relief in its own bill, full stop. Put social programs in their own bill, full stop. Put defense spending in its own bill, full stop, and don't mash it together with aid to veterans and military families. It just isn't a fair or transparent way of doing things. This crap where unpalatable funding gets shoved in with the likes of humanitarian aid has been going on forever (and people have been complaining about it forever) but honestly, it's got to stop.

:grr: