Tammy Duckworth (IL-08) voted "Yes" on NDAA, H.R.1735, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, in its 261-159 passage (Roll Call 239). Duckworth has asked progressives to vote for her against Mark Kirk in the Illinois 2016 Senatorial race but yesterday she voted against all progressives, the Democratic leaders, the White House and Sec. Def. Ashton B. Carter. The whopping $612 Billion bill includes $40 Billion non-sequestered "temporary war" funds of so-called "Overseas Contingency Operations".
Adam Smith (WA-9) was the sole cosponsor of the bill and even he voted against it. Smith is ranking minority member of House Committee on Armed Services, the committee of jurisdiction. Duckworth who rebelled at his leadership is 15th ranking Democrat.
Some sources claim that the NDAA-2016 House passed authorizes $604.2 billion in discretionary funding for defense programs in only fiscal 2016, including $89.2 billion for overseas contingency operations, of which $38.3 billion would be authorized for non-war base budget operations and maintenance. Excluding the war funding, the bill would authorize roughly: $136.6 billion for operations and maintenance, $109.7 billion for procurement, $136.4 billion for military personnel, $7.3 billion for military construction and family housing, $68.4 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation, and $31.7 billion for the Defense Health Program.
Defense Secretary Carter called it “clearly a road to nowhere” in his testimony to Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in a Defense Subcommittee Hearing on May 6, 2015. Nancy Pelosi said:
“Republicans are trying to use war funding as a virtual slush fund for one part of the budget while letting the ax fall on everything else, leaving priorities essential to the strength of our country — the veterans’ budget, infrastructure, education, innovation — grievously underfunded,” she said. “The Republican defense authorization bill is not only disingenuous, it is dangerous.”
Senator Jack Reed (RI) is ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, with three other Democrats,
on Thursday May 14th opposed moving the Senate military spending bill out of committee in a 22-to-4 vote.
Adam Smith put up H.AMDT.221 to Strike sections 1036, 1037, 1038, 1039, and insert a new SEC. 1036 "Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility Closure Act of 2015" that Failed by recorded vote: 174 - 249 (Roll no. 231).
Ruben Gallego (AZ-7) ranks 22nd in the Committee on Armed Services. On the House Floor he moved to recommit the overarching bill, H.R.1735, with instructions to the Committee on Armed Services to require the bill to be reported back to the House with an amendment to provide a 2.3% pay increase for for members of the uniformed services and to ensure that the Secretary of Defense must guarantee members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps continue to receive compensation for their service in defense of the United States despite any government shutdown after September 30, 2015. The House proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on this Gallego motion to recommit with instructions. The motion Failed by recorded vote: 184 - 234 (Roll no. 238).
Elijah E. Cummings (MD-7) and Linda T. Sánchez (CA-38, chair of Congressional Hispanic Caucus) stood firmly against passing that for which Duckworth voted "Aye".
Duckworth was joined by Bill Foster (IL-11), Dan Lipinski (IL-3), and Cheri Bustos (IL-17) of whom none practice progressive politics. In the DKos diary of May 1st, "Which 18 Democrats Want Guantanamo to be Open Forever?" you find both Lipinski and Duckworth voting with Republicans in ROLL CALL 187
Duckworth is backed by Foster in her fight against both Senator Kirk and Chicago Urban League President and CEO Andrea Zopp. As for Zopp, think Rahm-BillDaley-Zopp as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) tries to stay out of this slug-fest that Robin Kelly (IL-2) might enter.
Ms. Duckworth voted "NO" on March 25 Roll Call 141 (the vote on the terrible amendment that passed by 219-208) which was H.Amdt. 86 (Price) to H.Con.Res. 27: To increase new budget authority for the Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism function (Function 970) by $2 billion, from $94 billion to $96 billion in Fiscal Year 2016. The amendment increases the outlay amounts for OCO over the period of Fiscal Years 2016 to 2025. As a consequence of the increase in OCO/GWOT, conforming increases are made in total budget authority and outlays, deficits, interest, debt subject to limit, and debt held by the public. The amendment also strikes a deficit-neutral reserve fund for Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism in section 513 of the reported resolution.
I hope she runs strongly and I hope that she moves to be significantly more progressive --
For example, she should work strenuously to: Defeat the TPP; Defeat fasttrack authorization for TPP to move through Congress without being exposed to sunshine such as hearings, extensive floor debates and widespread media reportage; Defeat the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision, which would allow companies to sue foreign nations whose new policies hurt those companies’ interests. The text of the Investment Chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership validates concerns repeatedly raised by the Progressive Caucus about one of the biggest trade deals in history. Expanding ISDS increases foreign corporations’ ability to challenge U.S. policies outside of the U.S. court system, and demand monetary compensation for the loss of their ‘expected future profits.’ This erodes the power of Congress to establish vital health and environmental protections that protect consumers. The United States is leading a global race to the bottom that is not good for families anywhere. Good trade deals should not expose our consumer protections to legal attacks by foreign corporations.
She should fully support legislative strategies to pass what is known as The People’s Budget: A Raise for America — it is said by Many Experts to be about as close to common sense as Congress gets. And it is honest: Its numbers are carefully laid out and add up. It actually says what it would invest in and how it would pay for it.
Ms. Duckworth should hold forth into the light of day the realities shrouded in darkness by that so-called Global War on Terrorism documented in the new Body Count investigative report published in March 2015. The Executive Summary explicates many ideas and data, including:
This investigation comes to the conclusion that the war has, directly or indirectly, killed around 1 million people in Iraq, 220,000 in Afghanistan and 80,000 in Pakistan, i.e. a total of around 1.3 million. Not included in this figure are further war zones such as Yemen. The figure is approximately 10 times greater than that of which the public, experts and decision makers are aware of and propagated by the media and major NGOs. And this is only a conservative estimate. The total number of deaths in the three countries named above could also be in excess of 2 million, whereas a figure below 1 million is extremely unlikely.
The source is :
Body Count (1st international edition 2015) Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the “War on Terror” Iraq Afghanistan Pakistan by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (
IPPWN was awarded Nobel Peace Prize 1985) and
PSR: Physicians for Social Responsibility (U.S. affiliate of IPPWN).
I hope that you, Ms. Duckworth, run a vigorous campaign that will help hold accountable Boehner, Cotton and other minions of Dick, Rummy and W, the founding fathers of our current catastrophe. Your diary here allows us the opportunity to view your commitments to exposing reality that is not widely known but should become so for the sake of improving our lot as an uneducated (ignorant) population who debates and votes in a so-called democracy after having been fed a steady diet of cartoonish foreign policy lies for lo these multiple generations. You, in striving to win your race, can put a stop to the all the lies, both the domestic and foreign policy frauds to which We The People are exposed.
Ms. Duckworth, Thank You for entering the arena to replace Senator Kirk. You must vote "no" if this unconscionable NDAA-2016 comes back to you after being vetoed by President Obama. You should write him a letter asking that he does veto the bill.
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