Hardball In Vallejo, No Balls In D.C.

[Joanne98]

It's a game a union hardball in Vallejo, but there are No Balls In D.C.

Please consider this Pentagon Threat: If Congress doesn’t act, soldiers will go unpaid.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell briefed the press, starting with a statement about the Global War on Terror budget supplemental request, which is slated to go before the House this week. He said that currently the military is borrowing form Army payroll accounts in order to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that if the Congress does not act the Defense Department will not be able to pay soldier, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan after June 15, 2008. He said the only options available if Congress does not pass $108 billion in war supplementals would be for the Defense Department to petition Congress to allow certain “re-programming” of other funds so that soldiers don’t’ go without pay.
This is not about paying soldiers, this is about inappropriate spending. And Congress does not have the balls to do what needs to be done: Balance The Budget.

If the US government was required to have a balanced budget then this stupid war would not have been fought in the first place.

This is what I want Congress to do.

Keep paying the soldiers.
Stop paying themselves until they pass a balanced budget that includes future liabilities.

If Congress wants a war or war funding then fine. At least have the balls to raise taxes to pay for it. If we want to station troops in Europe and Japan, same thing. If taxpayers were given a choice to invade Iraq, station troops in Europe, and raise taxes, or not station troops in Europe and exit Iraq, it is perfectly clear how everyone but the neonuts would vote.

Want a bridge to nowhere in Alaska? Fine. Hike taxes or cut spending elsewhere. There would be some easy choices if Congress just looked at things like a household budget instead of money growing on trees.

Ball-less neocon chickenhawks started this mess, but they do not have the balls to pay for it. Ball-less Democrats keep giving in to Pentagon threats such as the one presented above for fear of being accused of not supporting the troops.

The reality is the only way to support the troops is to bring them home. The way to bring them home is to cut funding for the war and balance the budget. There is no balls in Congress to do either.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/05/hardball-in-vallejo-no-balls-in-dc.html