Domestic Padding for the War effort

It is sleazy politics or business as usual in the Halls of Congress. The new Democratic leaders are offering billions in federal funds for lawmakers' hometown pet projects to secure votes to pass an Iraq funding bill that would end the war next year. (read defeat)

Unbelievably the Majority is offering peanut farmers, spinach growers, Shrimp researchers and western farmers bribe money to get the congressional delegates representing those interests to vote for the short sighted Democratic initiative to constrain the War effort. They are mandating a Mandatory Withdraw timetable and Benchmarks, dictate Force levels, and establish readiness restrictions and other mandates based on Congressional/ not military/ specifications. They are doing this in the FY07 supplemental appropriations bill that provides funding for the continuation of the Iraq war.

In all over $30 Billion Dollars of Pork in the bill does not addresses military needs but covers things like Hurricane Livestock Indemnity Program $25 Billion, Shrimp Research $120 Million, Crop Relief Funding $3.7 Billion, Peanut Storage $ 74 Million, There is no connection between billions of dollars in add-on Pork projects and appropriating adequate funds to the military. The endeavor has everything to do with opportunist political maneuvering at the expense of our soldiers in the field. The supplemental legislation that is being offered by the Democratic majority in Congress is a poison pill to our Armed forces freedom of maneuver that closes options to deal with the situation in Iraq and allocates billions in funds to gratuitous pork projects.

Most of us want a successful conclusion to the effort in the Global War on Terrorism... therefore think twice if your elected representative supports this end round political ploy – what he has done is thrown on lots of restrictions that make it harder to execute the fight, smiled at you and tells you he does so in the name of supporting the troops and has padded his domestic needs with some added pork to keep the folks back home happy.