Congress Quietly Approves Billions More for Iraq War
The Senate agreed on Thursday to increase the federal debt limit by $850 billion — from $8.965 trillion to $9.815 trillion — and then proceeded to approve a stop-gap spending bill that gives the Bush White House at least $9 billion in new funding for its war in Iraq.
Additionally, the administration has been given emergency authority to tap further into a $70 billion “bridge fund” to provide new infusions of money for the occupation while the Congress works on appropriations bills for the Department of Defense and other agencies.
Translation: Under the guise of a stop-gap spending bill that is simply supposed to keep the government running until a long-delayed appropriations process is completed — probably in November — the Congress has just approved a massive increase in war funding.
The move was backed by every senator who cast a vote, save one.
Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, the maverick Democrat who has led the fight to end the war and bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, was on the losing end of the 94-1 vote. (The five senators who did not vote, all presidential candidates who are more involved in campaigning than governing, were Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and Republicans John McCain and Sam Brownback.)
Said Feingold, “I am disappointed that we are about to begin the 2008 fiscal year without having enacted any of the appropriations bills for that year. I am even more disappointed that we voted on a continuing resolution that provides tens of billions of dollars to continue the misguided war in Iraq but does not include any language to bring that war to a close. We need to keep the federal government operating and make sure our brave troops get all the equipment and supplies they need, but we should not be giving the President a blank check to continue a war that is hurting our national security.”
In the House, the continuing resolution passed by a vote of 404 to 14, with 14 other members not voting.
The “no” votes in the House, all cast by anti-war members, came from one Republican, Ron Paul of Texas, and 13 Democrats: Oregon’s Earl Blumenauer, Missouri’s William Clay, Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, California’s Bob Filner, Massachusetts’ Barney Frank, New York’s Maurice Hinchey, Ohio’s Dennis Kucinich, Washington’s Jim McDermott, New Jersey’s Donald Payne, California’s Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Diane Watson and Lynn Woolsey.
That means that, of the 2008 presidential candidates, only Republican Paul and Democrat Kucinich voted against giving the Bush administration a dramatic — if not particularly well publicized — infusion of new money for the war.
“Each year this war is getting more and more costly — both in the amount of money spent and in the number of lives lost. Now this Congress is providing more funds so the administration can continue down a path of destruction and chaos,” said Kucinich, who noted the essential role of House and Senate Democratic leaders, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in passing the continuing resolution. “The Democratic leadership in Congress needs to take a stand against this President and say they will not give him any more money. That is the only way to end this war and bring our troops home.”
John Nichols’ new book is The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism. Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson hails it as a “nervy, acerbic, passionately argued history-cum-polemic [that] combines a rich examination of the parliamentary roots and past use of the ‘heroic medicine’ that is impeachment with a call for Democratic leaders to ‘reclaim and reuse the most vital tool handed to us by the founders for the defense of our most basic liberties.’”
Copyright © 2007 The Nation
Yet more evidence that the Legislative branch of the federal government is illigitimate, which includes irresponsible. If you’re allowing the federal government to remove money from your paycheck and you agree with the illegality of both the administration and the legislature’s continuing enabling illegalities, why do you continue to fund the wholesale atrocity that the federal government has become?
“We have already given… one effectual check to the dog of war, by transferring the power of letting him loose from the Executive to the Legislative body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789.
We all know that the traitors are beholden to the corporatists. They desire the perpetual war of our warfare state. It lines their pockets. Only those who voted “nay” are on the side of the people. In the short span of fifty years the United States has gone from a manufacturer of products and builder of infrastructure, for use by society and the good of humankind, to a manufacturer of war products for the sole purpose of destroying infrastructure and killing humankind.
Unfortunately, the only way to end this madness is to eventually vote them all out of power, but the question always remains — with who?
Be sure to read Naomi Klein’s latest expose’ of the madness that has been perpetuated upon us and the rest of the world. The Shock Doctrine connects all of the dots, and fits all the pieces together, in a dramatic and understandable telling of the world we’re living in. Don’t let yourself be “shocked” by the methods that are surely in play to destroy our democracy in order to give way to unfettered, unregulated capitalism. They did it in Chile. They did it in Argentina. They did it in Uruguay. They did it in Russia. It’s happening in China. They’re fighting resistance to it in Iraq (which is about oil, true, but so much more), and the process is in motion in the United States. I believe success in Iraq will be the death-nail for our country. If they see it can occur there, their final and ultimate prize will be here. Beware.
Keep fighting the good fight.
There is a reason why Congressional approval ratings are at 11%. After we voted the Democrats into office in 2006 they not only haven’t done their jobs, they haven’t even tried. My take on it is that they think they can just coast along doing nothing, watching Bush self implode, and they will win in 2008 by default. Wrong IMO. We didn’t elect them to just coast. We elected them to do the hard things that need to be done because they are right. What did we get? A Speaker that took impeachment off the table before she was even elected to the position. And we got a bunch of whining about how they can’t beat a filibuster or override a veto. Both are wrong factually.
The Democrats could stop the war anytime by simply not funding it. They don’t even have to let a spending bill out of committee, and if there is no bill it can’t be filibustered or vetoed.
My take on it again, the Democrats are scared that if they do stop the funding they will be labeled as not supporting the troops. Not supporting the troops is lying to put them in harms way and getting almost 4,000 of them killed and almost 30,000 of them wounded. They are also scared that if things get worse in Iraq after the defunding that they will be blamed. We heard the same thing about Viet Nam which ended drawing out that war for over ten years with 58,000 dead before it was over. The end result? We still left in 1975 in an ignoble retreat, helicoptering people off the embassy roof and pushing the helicopters off into the sea when they reached the waiting carriers.
The Democrats have a chance to do the right thing here and avoid a repeat of the Viet Nam fiasco. That is what they get paid the big bucks for, not whining about how they can’t do this or they can’t do that when they can.
And I don’t want them to try to tell me to wait until 2008 when the Democrats will have a big enough majority to get us out. I watched the Democratic candidate debates last night and none of the three front running candidates would even promise to have our troops out by the end of their first term in 2013.
As for impeachment, we have the worst president in U.S. history that has blatantly violated his oath of office, the constitution, the law, international treaties, and the Democrats won’t even try to impeach him. My God, the Republicans impeached Clinton for lying about getting a BJ in the White House.
Don’t expect me to support or vote for the Democrats in 2008 if they refuse to stand up and do the right thing now. And I’m one of the voters they need, an independent swing voter. Isn’t it a shame that in this country neither one of the two major parties can attract enough voters on their own merits to be able to win elections on their own without help from independents? Both parties IMO need to take a close look at themselves and see what they are doing wrong and correct it if they want to remain viable. The voters, myself included, in this country are crying out for competent leadership that will turn the country around and head it in the right direction, rather than in the direction that the so called elites have been taking us. As of right now I don’t see that and a majority of the rest of the people in the country don’t either.
Lobo Gris
This money would, I suspect be for the next/last/forever/nuclear war.
If that isn’t scary enough, you’ve all officially been had.
- - -
WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - With the U.S. government fast approaching its current $8.965 trillion credit limit, the Senate on Thursday gave final congressional approval of an $850 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority.
The Senate voted 53-42 to raise the debt ceiling to $9.815 trillion, the fifth increase in the U.S. credit limit since President George W. Bush took office in January 2001. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the higher debt limit earlier this year as part of the overall budget resolution and the legislation now goes to Bush for his signature.
“We have no choice but to approve it. If we fail to raise the debt ceiling soon, the U.S. Treasury will default for the first time in its history,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus.
“Plainly, especially in this credit crisis, we cannot let that happen,” the Montana Democrat added.
The U.S. Treasury Department has been pressing Congress to pass the debt increase quickly. Last week Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government would hit its current $8.965 trillion debt limit on Oct. 1.
- - -
OK, Double-take on that central statement.
*** WE HAVE NO CHOICE OR THE U.S. TREASURY WILL BE IN DEFAULT ***
Are you Americans mad enough to do something yet?!!!
THE BALANCE OF THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES TREASURY = $0!
TOTALLY DAMNED EMPTY!!! STOLEN!!! CLEANED OUT!!!
Not only is the USA about to cross the $9 trillion debt mark, but it is now out in the open. The treasury is completely empty.
That is I think, the greatest heist in world history!
Has anyone considered that Bush/Cheney may be stockpiling all this extra and extraordinary money in case somebody is finally able to shut off the money supply for this illegal occupation?
Support and vote for Kucinich.
Wow. I hope the genuine apathy and outrage here is because all of the people with a spine have left their computers and marched out to lynch their congressman.
Treasury in default = no gold = no $$ = everyone holding t-bills has lost everything. It means your dollar is facing an imminent slide into total worthlessness. No buying power. No travel. No more imported anything.
You’re all very, very screwed.
Wow. I hope the genuine apathy and lack of outrage here is because all of the people with a spine have left their computers and marched out to lynch their congressman.
Treasury in default = no gold = no $$ = everyone holding t-bills has lost everything. It means your dollar is facing an imminent slide into total worthlessness. No buying power. No travel. No more imported anything.
You’re all very, very screwed.
I think the most surreal thing is that a news organization like Reuters can publish the Senate Finance Commitee Chairman saying ‘the treasury will default’ by October 1st (3 days) and there has been not a ripple anywhere that this is even newsworthy.
THE ENTIRE BALANCE OF THE FEDERAL TREASURY OF THE US OF FUCKING A IS GONE AND NOBODY’S THE LEAST BIT AWARE THAT THIS MEANS ANYTHING AT ALL!!!
I’m in pink marshmallow land where all of the 6 winged paisleybirds whistle yellow submarine while the green triangular suns do immelmans across the mustard yellow sky.
LA LA LA *sproing* oh, look! There went my brain onto the sidewalk to have a chat with the mice.
I saw this on C-Span yesterday. I was also extremely surprised to see funding for children’s health insurance for those who can’t even afford medicare ALMOST not pass. Or so that’s how I remember it.
Surprisingly enough, I did see Hillary there pass by for a second chatting it up. Maybe she came to visit?
“That means that, of the 2008 presidential candidates, only Republican Paul and Democrat Kucinich voted against giving the Bush administration a dramatic — if not particularly well publicized — infusion of new money for the war.”
See–and hear–the following:
http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Kucinich_seriously_thinking_about_forcing_vote_0928.html
Sophia1729,
I agree, we must support Kucinich. We really need to get alot of people behind a Kucinich movement. A leader for the people Dennis Kucinich.
Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton proposed giving every baby born in the U.S. $5,000 towards college. Really? With what money my dear?
This is like the Cop who says “I am doing everything I can to stop organized crime” while moonlighting as a mafia enforcer.
Republicans:vote for Ron Paul; Democrats: vote for Kucinich. The cheating bastards won’t be expecting it. If we wind up with Guilliani,then, NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Refuse to fund any more of this charade of representational government. If the congress won’t stop the funding, we WILL!!
If they don’t agree to increase the debt ceiling, they might not be able to give themselves another cost of living increase.
Hell, we wouldn’t want these loyal servants of the people who outsourced our middle class jobs and replaced them with slave-wage service jobs for illegals to sacrifice anything while they continue to wage war in Iraq, would we?
And we certainly wouldn’t want them to stop printing fiat money; how else will they attempt to save the ass’ of wealthy central bankers and the bundling hedge-funders who screwed up the global economy?
Hillary`s idea to give every baby $5000 is not so bad. The way the greenback is losing value, by the time those babies are ready for college, it will only be worth $5.
$5000 for college now will only be worth $500 when they need it or perhaps just $50, if the dollar keeps losing value at the present rate.
One has to wonder how much did both houses of Congress promise the Iraq/Iran war profiteers?
Just give us a figure, so we can allocate the blood in an orderly fashion.
Democrats = repubs = war = empire = USrael = oil
stinger_28 September 28th, 2007 3:56 pm
“I think the most surreal thing is that a news organization like Reuters can publish the Senate Finance Commitee Chairman saying ‘the treasury will default’ by October 1st (3 days) and there has been not a ripple anywhere that this is even newsworthy.”
That is because the treasury is always empty when the Government runs in deficit. The same as your bank account would be empty every month if you continually spent more than you make. You could borrow for a while to cover it but eventually the credit would run dry too as your creditors realize that they probably weren’t going to get paid back what they lent to you.
The more worrying aspect of all this is that we are now 10 trillion dollars in debt, we are borrowing 2 billion dollars a day and there is no end in site.
Lobo Gris
The ‘bottom line’ of Nichols’ assessment is precisely what many in the principled anti-war/ pro-democracy movement have been saying for quite some time —- that the entire Congress (both corporate parties) are merely posing as politicians in a totally phony “Vichy America”, while really being representatives of their real constituency; the global corporate Empire.
When reporting on this particular episode of sneaky, backdoor financing of the pro-war Empire by all but a few so-called ‘representatives’, Nichols tellingly notes:
“That means that, of the 2008 presidential candidates, only Republican Paul and Democrat Kucinich voted against giving the Bush administration a dramatic — if not particularly well publicized — infusion of new money for the war.”
Now we all know that Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are not really ideological members of the Republican and Democrat Parties in any real sense —- they would really be 3rd party candidates if a real third party existed outside of this con-game of a facade of “Vichy America”, set-up by the global corporate Empire.
So what we have here (in Nichols’ accurate analysis) is really a very clear proof that the global corporate fascist Empire, and its total control of the preverted facade of a so-called two-party political monopoly in “Vichy America” is really just a highly sophisticated ‘Three Card Monte’ scam of the American voters (aka rubes) — with the so-called two parties, the Congress, the presidency, and most importantly the corporate MSM (taking the role of so-called ‘objective observer’) all just shifting places for each new ‘election’ CON to further fool the rubes into believing that this phony political process can accomplish anything.
It’s somewhat like the old ‘Charlie Brown’ comic each Fall season that has Lucy telling Charlie again and again, “I really, really mean it this time, Charlie. This time I promise to hold the football while you kick — and I won’t pull it away again. Please believe me.” And every Fall, just like footbal season and election season, the same thing happens —- Lucy pulls away the football, and the two-parties pull away any promises they made to the voter/rubes, particualrly to end the friggin war.
The Dems just did exactly the same trick last election season, after the 2006 elections.
Now how dumb a rube do you have to be to get suckered back into this Three Card Monte con again???
We all need to remember the essential characteristics of ALL ‘Three Card Monte’ con game schemes:
1. ALL the participants (other then the rube) are ALWAYS in on the con.
2. The lead con, playing the role of ‘card dealer’ (currently Republican), will from one round of ‘gaming’ to another, change roles with the 2nd party con, who plays the role of ‘player’ (currently Democrat).
3. The shilling con, playing the role of supposed ‘objective observer’ (played by our lying MSM) will ALWAYS tell the rube that it looks easy to win the game if only the rube bet differently than the current player.
4. The rube (played by the US voters) takes the advice of the supposed ‘objective observer’, and bets to switch to the supposed ‘current player’, thinking that this will beat the ‘current dealer’.
5. The rube is suckered out of his money, property, or more, because he can’t believe that this Three Card Monte game is all that complex — or that ALL the participants are actually conspiring to cheat him.
6. Return to absolute rule one of ALL ‘Three Card Monte’ scams —— ALL the participants that the rube even sees ARE REALLY, REALLY part of the friggin CON.
Believe it Americans: You are being continually conned, election after so-called election, by a cast of CONS who would bring tears of admiration to Joseph Goebbels’ eyes.
Believe it Americans: You are being continually conned, election after so-called election, by the world’s first global corporate fascist Empire that has taken over every political snd media ‘player’ you see in this complete facade of “Vichy America” and they are running their EMPIRE against your interests and continuing to ‘play’ you as a rube. The global corporate fascist EMPIRE has done one better than even the Nazi fascist EMPIRE did in “Vichy France” — they have convinced the people in their own ‘homeland’ that “Vichy America” is still a democracy where voting can change things —- while the only thing that they will change is how completely and totally they will screw and con the rubes out of more and more of money, savings, homes, and children’s lives to continue THEIR EMPIRE.
also see,
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11680
Lobo Gris…
“If we fail to raise the debt ceiling soon, the U.S. Treasury will default for the first time in its history,”
Total default is not something that happens all the time and it will have some very serious consequences for essential services. It’ll all be delivered as war funds since soldiers are very likely to stop following orders if they stop getting paid.
Letter Sent to the New York Times
From: John Walsh
Date: September 16, 2007 9:49:05 AM EDT
To: letters@nytimes.com
Subject: Frank Rich’s column
To the editor:
In an otherwise excellent column today (9/16/2007) Frank Rich perpetuates the myth that the Democrats do not have the power to end the war because of an inevitable veto from Bush.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. The war demands funding, and a new supplemental funding will soon appear before Congress. That can be filibustered in the Senate, with only the 41 votes or abstentions required to sustain a filibuster. At that moment the legislation is dead. There is nothing to veto so Bush must come back with an acceptable bill. At the same time the Democrats could submit legislation to bring the occupying troops home quickly and safely. Let Bush veto that if he dares. There is already a national petition drive for this at FilibusterForPeace.org and every Senator has received a copy of it.
In the House one person Nancy Pelosi can accomplish the same thing. She can simply refuse to bring Bush’s supplemental requests to the floor. In this she has veto power as surely as the president does.
So let us not hear from the Democrats that they do not have the power to end the war. Clearly they do. One must conclude that the Democrats support it. They pay for it and so they own it.
Sincerely,
John V. Walsh, MD
Professor of Physiology
University of Massachusetts Medical School
john.walsh@umassmed.edu
#
stinger_28 September 29th, 2007 4:24 pm
Lobo Gris…
“If we fail to raise the debt ceiling soon, the U.S. Treasury will default for the first time in its history,”
Total default is not something that happens all the time and it will have some very serious consequences for essential services. It’ll all be delivered as war funds since soldiers are very likely to stop following orders if they stop getting paid.
They never default stinger, they go in like sheep and raise the debt limit without doing anything to limit the spending that causes the problem.
Lobo Gris
American genocide against Iraq must end.
Russian troops fragging their officers during World War I helped end Russian participation in that war
Dumb de dumb dumb dumb
And American’s - stupid on booze, weed, sports, TV, hip hop, church, chasing the next paycheck, spinning in their private little self absorbed worlds - ignorantly think things are going to “stay the same.”
We are “dumbed” quote from a writer above:
I do not think the majority of American’s are going to wake up in time for us to do anything about this rip off. Most people really are in there own world here in the US. It is refreshing to read others who think like me but I don’t know what the hell to do about this crap?