[Mb-civic] Bush budget--speak out ...

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

                         Iraq Supplemental 
                          Appropriation & 
                            the Federal 
                               Budget
                                  
To: FCNL Key Contacts
From: Joe Volk
What do you think about the following message?:
"Please approve this additional $64 billion taxpayer dollars for the 
war in Iraq, but don’t ask me to count these costs in my budgeting 
process." 
That’s basically the message from the White House this week.
Here’s what President Bush did. Last week, he said that his budget 
request for the Pentagon in 2006 was $420 billion. Then this week 
he made a "emergency" supplemental appropriations request for 
additional military spending in 2005 of $64 billion dollars for Iraq, 
plus additional money for the war in Afghanistan and other 
programs. (The supplemental request in total comes to $81.9 
billion.)
The president does not want a real debate on the costs of the 
war in Iraq, either in human terms or in its consequences for 
the federal budget. The Congress has already approved more than 
$150 billion in spending for the war in Iraq and its direct 
consequences. When this new emergency supplemental is 
approved those costs will rise to more than $200 billion. One 
Congressional estimate suggests the Iraq invasion, occupation and 
subsequent costs could rise to between $460 billion and $645 billion 
in the next ten years. 
As the U.S. approaches the two year anniversary of the invasion of 
Iraq, the president is continuing to block any substantive 
Congressional role in planning for U.S. operations in Iraq. And 
Congress is accepting this arrangement.
Do you agree? We don’t. We seek a world free of war and the 
threat of war. We oppose military spending, including the 
supplemental funding request for Iraq. But FCNL also believes this 
is not a truthful budget process. 
The "budget" is intended to be a document that implies a thought-
out process of planning for the future. A "supplemental 
appropriation" should be used to obtain quick congressional 
approval to spend money on an urgent, unanticipated emergency. 
The President is misusing these terms to be a spendthrift on war 
but look like a belt-tightening conservative.
Newspaper reports suggest that President Bush will also seek 
another supplemental appropriation for Iraq in the fall of 2005. He 
knows that now, but he doesn’t want Congress to suffer sticker 
shock. So rather than providing an estimate of future spending, the 
president asks for some money now, and then comes back to ask 
for more later. Congress is pretending not to notice. Voters need to 
convince their Members of Congress to face up to the money 
crunch now.
What should Congress do? Congress should call President Bush on 
this budget deception. They should reserve "supplemental 
appropriations" requests onlyfor true, unanticipated emergencies, 
like the tsumani which is estimated to have killed a quarter of million 
people and destroyed communities across a quarter of the planet. 
They should include in their budget resolution the anticipated costs 
of a continuing war and occupation.
In short, Congress should put the Iraq war and occupation 
costs into its budget resolution and regular appropriations 
process. That’s the only way to tell the American taxpayer the truth 
about federal spending priorities.
_______________________________________
The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign, 
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/index.htm
Contact Congress and the Administration: 
http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/.
Order FCNL publications and "War is Not the Answer" campaign 
bumper stickers and yard
signs:
http://www.fcnl.org/newinfo/special_pub.htm
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq-war.htm
Contribute to FCNL:
http://www.fcnl.org/suprt/indx.htm
Subscribe or update your information to this list:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/mlm/. To unsubscribe from this list, please 
see the end of this message.
Subscribe to other FCNL legislative, policy, and action alert lists:
http://www.fcnl.org/listserv/quaker_issues.php.
________________________________________
Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 Second St. NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795
fcnl at fcnl.org * http://www.fcnl.org/
phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330
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"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
   ---   George Orwell


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