There are a few painfully obvious things that have not gotten nearly the attention that they deserve – especially with respect to the latest debate over the Iraq supplemental funding bills passed by Congress over the past couple of weeks. Actually, there are more than a few painfully obvious things that haven’t gotten nearly the attention that they deserve over the past six years, but frankly I don’t have the time to point them all out in a coherent manner.
Let’s be real here – if President Bush was honest enough to include the full amount of Iraq funding that he wanted in each of the annual budget requests, then we wouldn’t have the need to pass “emergency” spending bills to keep the troops from going without the proper funds. Of course, if the republicans didn’t vote against properly equipping our troops, then maybe tens of thousands LESS would have as severe injuries.
If Bush actually did care about the troops, he wouldn’t propose deep cuts to veterans medical benefits at a time when they will need them the most. If the budget actually included the hundreds of billions for the ongoing occupation of Iraq, then maybe there would be an honest debate about the true cost to the American taxpayer through the tremendous deficits that aren’t even being counted in the “rosy” budget projections.
If the outgoing “do-nothing” 109th republican controlled Congress didn’t punt nine spending bills to the incoming Democratic controlled Congress (totaling close to half a trillion dollars), then there wouldn’t be the need to put such funding in this supplemental spending bill – mind you, this is the first supplemental spending bill of any kind in this Congress, so the funds were needed immediately.
If Congress passes a bill that will authorize over $120 billion in funds for Iraq and Bush vetoes it, that is a clear message that Bush does not want to provide such funds to the troops. If the Democrats control Congress, then they get to pass a bill that is in line with the will of the people – not the will of a wanna-be dictator. On the same note, if the founding fathers of this country wanted another king or a dictatorship, then they would not have given certain powers to the Legislative Branch (whether Bush likes it or not).
Most importantly, if the true cost of the Iraq occupation wasn’t put in the budget, necessitating hundreds of billions in emergency supplemental spending bills, and if these bills are vetoed by Bush, then there is no funding. If there is no funding, and a spending bill was passed by Congress with the full amount (or close to it) of requested funding, then it is not Congress’ fault if the troops are not funded.
If it wasn’t so easy to point out the hypocrisy and lunacy of Bush’s assertions about how long it took Congress to pass an Iraq spending bill, then maybe he would have a shred of credibility (on second thought, nah….he wouldn’t even if this weren’t the case).
If the justice department wasn’t politicized to the point where republican prosecutors with very good track records appointed by a republican president were fired in the middle of his term after a sneaky changing of the laws allowing “loyal Bushies” to be appointed, there probably wouldn’t be much of a question over the reasons for the firings. If this wasn’t unprecedented to begin with, and if the Attorney General himself didn’t lie to Congress and to reporters over the firings, then there wouldn’t be as much of a scandal.
Of course, if the prosecutors who were fired weren’t targeting those who were close to the White House, then there wouldn’t be thoughts of “obstruction of justice”. And on that same note, if Scooter Libby didn’t lie to the grand jury, then he too wouldn’t have been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice. Taking that a step further, if there wasn’t a concerted effort by the administration to leak classified information related to the CIA as revenge for calling bullshit on their lies, then none of that would have happened in the first place.
If there wasn’t so much corruption, cronyism and criminal activity by the republicans over the past few years, then they may still have a majority in Congress. But there was, and they don’t.
And if Bush, or the newly minority republicans don’t like it, well that’s just too friggin bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment