Iraq War Spending Bill

Source: news.yahoo.com --- 8 days ago
CQPolitics.com - The defense authorization Bill's constraints on Iraq reconstruction Spending are Congress' biggest attempt to force a change in President Bush's War policy, but the practical impact of the legislation is limited and late. ...

Source: blog.washingtonpost.com --- 2 days ago
Note: Please upgrade your Flash plug-in to view our enhanced content. var thisObj = "flashobj100808X1v"; var so = new SWFObject("http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/player/wpniplayer_blog.swf", thisObj, "454", "305", "8", "#ffffff"); so.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always"); so.addParam("swfliveconnect", true); so.addVariable("thisObj", thisObj); so.addVariable("vid","100808-1v_title"); so.addVariable("playads", "no"); so.addVariable("adserv",""); so.addVariable("autoStart", "no"); so.write("flashcontent100808X1v"); By Matthew Mosk The group VoteVets is launching a toughly worded, $1.3 million ad campaign today, largely targeting veterans in Virginia. The television spots that will appear in several Virginia television markets feature an Iraq War veteran, standing in front of his pickup truck, expressing disdain for what he says was Sen. John McCain's decision to attend a campaign fundraiser instead of casting a vote for the GI Bill. In addition to the television ad campaign in Virginia, the group is launching $40,000 in radio ads in New Mexico focused on McCain and votes on veterans funding. And it is Spending $200,000 in North Carolina for a television ad that attacks ...

Source: www.slate.com --- 8 days ago
Joe Biden claimed in tonight's debate that "we spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country." The claim sounds stunning, and Biden has made it before; he said the same thing in a March 2 New York Times op-ed and at a Senate foreign relations committee hearing a year earlier. The key word here is building . To make the claim work, one needs to compare only the reconstruction costs in Afghanistan with the entire Department of Defense Bill for Iraq. According to the most recent Congressional Research Service report  on War appropriations, Congress has appropriated $653 billion for Iraq and $172 billion in Afghanistan. (See Page 16. Afghanistan is listed as "OEF" for " Operation Enduring Freedom .") By that comparison, it would take more than a year's worth of Iraq Spending to equal the total cost of operations in Afghanistan. Biden is referring only to rebuilding costs in Afghanistan, which are a small fraction of total Spending. The claim is a classic apples-to-oranges analogy, and it's unclear exactly where Biden is getting his price for oranges. The same CRS report lists all foreign aid and diplomatic Spending in Afghanistan at $12.4 billion on Page 19, which is getting us closer; if we use fiscal year 2008 numbers for Iraq, when combat costs totalled $145 billion, three weeks comes out $8.4 billion. Biden is probably ...

Source: www.slate.com --- 13 days ago
Whoever wins the election, one thing is for sure: The next president of the United States will be extremely boring. At least, that’s the impression voters just tuning in will get based on tonight’s debate. The evening was heavy on substance, from the Wall Street bailout to Iraq to Russia and Georgia. Which is good, in theory. But there wasn’t a single memorable line. McCain did a better job of boiling his message down to short sentences—“That isn’t just naive, it’s dangerous,” he said of Obama’s desire to hold talks with unfriendly nations. At another point, McCain held up a pen and promised to veto every Spending Bill that crossed his desk. But none of his lines zinged like his now-famous “tied up at the time” moment during the primaries. Obama, meanwhile, sounded discursive and academic even about visceral issues like War with Iran: “What Senator McCain refers to is a measure in the Senate that would try to broaden the mandate inside Iraq” to justify action against Iran, he said. Obama did have a strong moment where he repeated the phrase, “You were wrong,” referring to McCain’s opinions on WMD and being welcomed as liberators in Iraq. But for the most part, it was like a race to the bottom of my memory. Jim Lehrer tried valiantly to get the candidates to address each other. Eventually, Obama managed to turn to McCain and address him in the second person, but only after some prodding. “Say it directly to him,” Lehrer instructed Obama ...

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com --- 14 days ago
Tonight's debate was a political Rorschach test. Wherever you were at 8:59 pm ET, you were at 10:36 pm (the debate ran a few minutes long). It was a good night for Obama because, when 83 percent of the country believe we are on the wrong track, standing toe-to-toe with McCain on foreign policy is all you need to do. And Obama clearly did that -- scoring strong points on the lessons of Iraq, where he pointed out all the ways McCain had been wrong on the War. He even landed a zinger: "John, you like to pretend the War began in 2007." It was a good night for McCain because, after a week in which he'd been bleeding like a hemophiliac in a barbed wire factory, tonight stanched the bleeding. He was able to keep the debate about the economy focused on taxes and cutting Spending, as opposed to the crisis brought on by the free market, deregulation religion of which he is a devout follower. And he was able to interject himself into the major foreign policy decisions of the last 20 years. But it was a bad night for reality. Did John McCain really try to reclaim the high ground on torture after having caved on the issue earlier in the year? And did he really profess his love for veterans after having fought against the new GI Bill? The worst blow to reality came when the candidates took on the question of whether we are safer now than we were on 9/11. Both men agreed that, although there is still work to be done, we are, in fact, safer than ...

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com --- 14 days ago
Reason #1 to be suspicious of the Big Big Bailout is George Bush. This is not a Bush bash, it's actually an analysis. All major George Bush initiatives, and most of the minor ones too, have certain things in common. 1. They're failures. 2. They leave a big mess for other people to clean up. Someday. 3. They make matters worse. 4. Some small group of people profit from it, and they profit hugely. 5. That profit comes from using the government to take money from ordinary people and give it to people who are already very rich and well connected. The Bush initiatives include: 1. The decision, before 9/11, to ignore Al Qaeda and concentrate on... who knows exactly what. 2. The invasion of Afghanistan for the purpose of capturing (or killing) Osama bin Laden & the rest of Al Qaeda. (When thinking about this War, and the others below, keep in mind that an unknown amount of the Spending - but certainly more than half - goes to private contractors, the defense and the intelligence industries.) 3. The invasion of Iraq. 4. The occupation of Iraq. 5. The reconstruction of Iraq. 6. The reconstruction of New Orleans. 7. The Medicare Care enrich the pharmaceutical companies Bill 8. The tax cuts that would promote jobs - "good jobs" - and growth. 9. When the tax cuts failed and led to a recession, more tax cuts. 10. The theory that tax cuts would not create deficits and would pay for themselves. 11. Anti-regulation efforts. There were thousands ...

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com --- 9 days ago
Congress is currently debating the Bush administration's proposal for a $700 billion to $1 trillion bailout of Wall Street. It is a bad Bill and would waste an enormous amount of money, but it represents just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of fiscal irresponsibility in Washington. Indeed, the national debt already exceeds $9.5 trillion, and Congress recently raised the debt ceiling to $10.6 trillion (which the Bush administration is proposing to increase in the bailout to $11.3 trillion). Congress should reject the bailout, and then get busy cutting Spending elsewhere throughout the budget. For instance, the 2009 federal budget will exceed $3 trillion. Next year's deficit will run a half trillion dollars. Additionally, this assumes no more federal bailouts. We need a president willing to reconsider every Spending program and challenge every special interest that comes in the door. The U.S. already has spent about $600 billion on the War in Iraq. That's almost as much as the Wall Street bailout package. But total costs for the War may exceed $2 trillion. There are many reasons to pull our forces out of Iraq, leaving Iraq for the Iraqis. Ending this enormous waste of taxpayer money is one of the most important reasons. The defense budget next year will be at least $515 billion. Toss in outlays for Afghanistan and Iraq, and the total will run nearly $700 billion. Yet most of this money, the equivalent of the Wall Street bailout, ...

Source: corner.nationalreview.com --- 23 days ago
To repeat, here's Obama today: 'I believe we need to ... bring a responsible end to this War in Iraq so we stop Spending billions each month rebuilding their country when we should be rebuilding ours.' (Emphasis added.) Now, here's Obama's website explaining the Global Poverty Act that would lavish hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars on the nations of the world, through the UN: With billions of people living on just dollars a day around the world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and tragedies the international community faces[.]... It must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuild America's standing in the world, this important Bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in the developing world. Our commitment to the global economy must extend beyond trade agreements that are more about increasing corporate profits than about helping workers and small farmers everywhere. (Emphasis added.) So today the market is tumbling and Obama is suddenly worried about American corporate profits. But don't forget he has already told you that the well-being of non-American workers and small farmers is, for him, a higher priority than increasing American corporate profits. Hat tip to Lee Cary at the American Thinker, whose piece on the Global Poverty Act is worth r ...

Source: talkingpointsmemo.com --- 20 days ago
There are subjects I know a lot about and others I know very little about. And the high-wire financial mess we're currently in falls clearly into the latter category. But I know enough to be troubled that we appear ready to give upwards of a trillion dollars in unfettered and unreviewable Spending authority to the ... let's face it, the Bush administration , the folks who did such a bang up job in Iraq and New Orleans. This morning a friend told me it's like the Iraq War all over again -- Shock & Awe, followed by an occupation of Wall Street, and all with no exit plan. In all seriousness, Paulson seems like a very able guy. And without a roadmap in hand, he appears at least to have avoided catastrophe so far. But let's take a moment to realize just how much money we're talking about. It is probably inevitable in such cases that the public gets stuck with a lot of the Bill for the recklessness and perhaps even criminality of the people who got us into this mess. Even if it is their 'fault', we (as a country and its citizens) are simply too bound up with the consequences of their actions to let them play out in an unfettered manner. But we need both some orderly system of decision making and some conditions imposed on the people, and the industries, that brought us into the ditch. Here's a note received today from one TPM Reader ... The current proposal for the bailout -- $700 billion to be used however the administration chooses t ...

Source: seekingalpha.com --- 24 days ago
Zubin Jelveh submits: The Congressional Research Service estimated in July that the Iraq War has so far cost $648 billion in current dollars. While the government thus far during the credit crunch has committed to Spending about $300 billion as a result of the recent housing Bill , potential costs from other bailouts and loan programs could potentially put taxpayers on the hook for $901 billion, Reuters reports . Here is the sum of the housing Bill, the bailouts of Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), AIG (AIG), Bear Stearns, and Lehman (LEH), as well as the Term Auction Facility loans currently lent: Complete Story » ...

Source: www.charlotte.com --- 1 day ago
Two groups are pouring big money into North Carolina's U.S. Senate race with new ads attacking Democrat Kay Hagan and Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole. The Employee Freedom Action Committee, an anti-union group, is Spending $1 million on online ads and mailings that criticize Hagan, according to spokesman Tim Miller. The group is attacking her support for legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize. It's also Spending $2 million for a TV ad featuring former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern criticizing the legislation. The ad is running in North Carolina and a half-dozen other states. The committee is affiliated with The Center for Union Facts. It opposes the legislation, which would allow workers to unionize by signing cards instead of through a secret-ballot election. “Kay supports it as a way to level the playing field for working families,” said Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan. “This Bill simply allows the workers, not the employers, to decide which method to use, and stiffens penalties for intimidation.” Meanwhile, a veterans' group is Spending $200,000 on TV ads saying Dole voted against body armor for troops. The ad by VoteVets.org features a man identified as an Iraq War veteran firing shots from an AK-47 through a flak jacket given out early in the War. He also fires into more modern body armor, which stops the shots. It claims Dole twice voted against the more modern armor. The ad appear ...

Source: www.reason.com --- 14 days ago
I don't love 'em, but I don't think they're the only economic problem we face. McCain's clinging to them like a favorite teddy bear. Sure enough, it gives Obama the chance to finally bring up his Coburn BFFism. McCain does seem to be controlling the debate, parrying Obama's challenge that he supports Bush 9/10 of the time (a hit on the campaign trail) by dryly reciting how many times he's shoved Bush's face in the dirt. Finally, finally, the Iraq portion. It's been a long time since we've talked about this, so I feel like we're being hurtled back to July: McCain was right on the surge! Obama was right in 2002! Obama doesn't know the difference between a tactic and a strategy! The winner of this is decided outside the room, I think, by people who are deciding how much they want to go out versus how much they don't trust Obama. Both of them sound pretty on their game on the wider War outside Iraq, probably because, well, Obama was planning for this all week (as opposed to the economics) and McCain thinks about nothing but this and Spending. Interesting exchange on the bracelet story. Obama is clearly ready (here and surely in the town hall debate) for McCain to yank at heartstrings with tales of his military service, his connection to vets. (Probably why Obama doesn't tag him on his vote against the new GI Bill.) Both men are comically full of themselves. The McCain history of the world, as we know, is of him summoning the wisdom o ...

Source: hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com --- 16 days ago
The last time President Bush asked the nation -- and Congress -- for a blank check it was in the run up to a War we would later learn was premised on faulty intelligence. Bookending his time in office, the president now asks for another massive financial commitment from the American public, $700B, without specifics and summoned hastily. The difference in this case, of course, is that the public has been warned by some of the greatest economic minds that dire consequences loom should the government do nothing. But just as the cost and duration of the Iraq War were understated, there's no guarantee in this case that the legislation drafted by lawmakers this week will do the trick. We don't know as well if the $700B request is adequate -- or merely the downpayment on a longer, more expensive and undefined commitment for the future. We are told today that the payback for this endeavor will help to cover the cost. Weren't we told the same as a justification for the Iraq War, that the region's oil would ultimately foot the Bill? Bush ran for president as a champion of less regulation, less government Spending. And he will have presided over the two largest commitments of taxpayer dollars in modern American history, the latter requiring an unprecedented expansion of government powers. "It is difficult to pass a Bill that commits so much of the taxpayers hard-earned money," Bush said tonight in a televised address from the White House. " ...

Source: www.michaelmoore.com --- 18 days ago
2008-09-21 VETERANS SUPPORTING OBAMA TOUR STATE WBAY-TV GREEN BAY, WI and mdash; With the presidential election less than two months away, a group of veterans are Spending three days on the road to fight for Democrat Barack Obama. The rollout includes veterans from the Vietnam era through the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friday afternoon the vets stopped in Appleton to discuss their support for Obama instead of Republican John McCain, who fought in Vietnam and was a prisoner of War. They cite Obama's voting record to help veterans, including supporting the GI Bill and veterans health care, which they say Senator McCain opposed. ...

Source: blog.newsweek.com --- 29 days ago
This election could wind up being about a lot of things. The economy. The War in Iraq. Whether Sarah Palin's mooseburgers are better than Barack Obama's chili . But there's at least one thing that it won't be about: Earmarks.  Our apologies to John McCain. If the Arizona senator had his druthers, earmarks are all America would talk about from now until Nov. 4--perhaps with the word "surge" mentioned every other week, just for variety. McCain has spent much of his Congressional career crusading against pork-barrel Spending--i.e., the secretive appropriations that House and Senate members have increasingly slipped into Spending bills without public hearings or debate. He prides himself on never having requested an earmark for the Grand Canyon State, which is pretty much true . On the stump, he decries the practice as "disgraceful" and promises as president to veto with Ronald Reagan's pen every pork-barrel Bill that crosses his desk. He even bases his plan to balance the budget in part on slashing $100 billion in earmarks from the federal budget. Experts say that McCain's pledge is a "fantasy"--even if the budget contained $100 billion in earmarks ( which it doesn't ) that sum wouldn't be enough to put the U.S. in the black . Still, McCain has been effective in using his opposition to earmarks as a symbol of his larger mission to reform a wayward Washington. So what's the problem? Two words: Sarah Palin. When McCain introduced Pali ...

Source: www.kansas.com --- 14 days ago
John McCain accused Barack Obama of compiling "the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate" Friday night as the two rivals clashed over taxes, Spending, the War in Iraq and more in an intense first debate of the White House campaign. "Mostly that's just me opposing George Bush's wrong-headed policies," shot back the Democrat. Obama said his Republican rival has been a loyal supporter of the unpopular president, adding that the current economic crisis is "a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by President Bush and supported by Sen. McCain." The two men were polite but pointed as they debated at close quarters for 90 minutes on the University of Mississippi campus. McCain accused his younger rival of an "incredible thing of voting to cut off funds for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," a reference to legislation that cleared the Senate more than a year ago. Obama disputed that, saying he had opposed funding in a Bill that presented a "blank check" to the Pentagon while McCain had opposed money in legislation that included a timetable for troop withdrawal. ...

Source: miamiherald.typepad.com --- 25 days ago
A group running TV ads against Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart has drawn a complaint from the National Republican Congressional Committee which says the group is violating federal election law. The NRCC has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging Patriot Majority with violating federal election law by not registering with the FEC as a political committee. The NRCC says the group has spent more than $1 million since January targeting GOP'ers running for federal office. But the NRCC says the group has failed to appropriately register with the FEC or disclose the source of its contributions. The ad against Diaz-Balart accuses him of voting against health care for troops. Diaz-Balart's campaign says the votes in the ad were part of a War Spending Bill that included a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. After a presidential veto, the Bill was re-introduced without the timetable and Diaz-Balart voted for it. ...

Source: feministing.com --- 10 days ago
So I watched CNN all day yesterday waiting for the vote on the bailout Bill , but I noticed that even though I don't have any money to really lose (just the hope that they may not notice how much debt I have) I still felt stressed out. I also realized that when rich people lose money, it is a national crisis. But poor folk have trouble making ends meet every single day. Where is our news coverage? The thing with money stress, for most of us, it is always there. So why this panic and media frenzy? Because the Dow Jones dropped ? Or because we need to sensationalize everything and create fake scenarios to see how our to be presidents will react? Now, I am not saying that the financial crisis isn't real. Giving out money that doesn't exist will lead to problems. But this has problem didn't happen over night. As Naomi Klein would suggest, [R]ight-wing governments use the shock generated by disasters or other crises to push through unpopular free-market policies when the population isn't in a position to oppose such programs. via Chronicle Herald. So instead of taking a jab at some shoddy economic analysis (which it seems like a lot of people are doing), I thought I would give you all a chance to share your thoughts on the economic crisis. I realized after watching the news all day I started to feel really panicked and started revisiting all my bills and stressing out about money. I also realized the Spending on the War in Iraq is almo ...

Source: www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com --- 14 days ago
OXFORD, Miss. John McCain accused Barack Obama of compiling the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate Friday night in an intense first debate of their close campaign for the White House. The Democrat shot back, Mostly thats just me opposing George Bushs wrong-headed policies. Obama said his Republican rival has been a loyal supporter of the unpopular president across the past eight years, adding that the current economic crisis is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by President Bush and supported by Sen. McCain. The two men clashed over Spending, taxes, energy and at length the War in Iraq during their 90-minute debate. McCain accused his younger rival of an incredible thing of voting to cut off funds for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, a reference to legislation that cleared the Senate more than a year ago. Obama disputed that, saying he had opposed funding in a Bill that presented a blank check to the Pentagon while McCain had opposed money in legislation that included a timetable for troop withdrawal. Obama opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2002, before he was a member of Congress, while McCain voted in the Senate to authorize the War. You were wrong on Iraq, Obama repeated three times in succession. John, you like to pretend the War began in 2007. McCain replied that Obama has refused to acknowledge the success of the troop buildup in Iraq that McCain recommended and Bush announ ...