Of course it's only to be expected from our felon-in-chief: his minions at the Pentagon are planning to make sure whoever takes over the White House on Jan. 20, 2009, will have to ask congress immediately for off-budget funding for the WARS in Iraq and Afghanistan. EVEN IF that new commander-in-chief intends to withdraw our troops from Irag immediately.
According to a story on All Things Considered this evening, the Pentagon's budget (some $500 billion -- more than the whole rest of the world spends on military matters) does not include any war funding. So there's a second request for $70b to fund the wars. Only that's not all: the $70b for the war represents only 25% of what will be "needed" for the coming fiscal year. So the real total (right now at least) is a whopping $280b. Bringing the total defense appropriation request up to $750b. For ONE YEAR. That's 3/4 of a trillion, folks.
There's more....
If you listen to the whole story, you'll discover that the strategy means that upon taking the oath of office our next president will need money pronto, just to feed the troops in the field. Never mind bringing them home!
All Things Considered, January 28, 2008 · The Pentagon will unveil its budget request to Congress next week. The request totals about $500 billion. If approved, it will be the largest military budget — adjusted for inflation — since World War II.
But one thing is missing: most of the money to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Defense officials now say they'll only ask Congress to provide enough money to fund the wars through the end of the Bush administration.
Critics say the decision could present a political dilemma for the next president.
Frankly, this sort of maneuver is a whole lot more serious than the (spurious) charge that the Clintonistas removed the "W" from a bunch of White House keyboards. Is there anything our (largely spinelss) representatives and senators can do about this sort of thing? It's outrageous.