Senate leaves without passing war funding

[unhappycamper]

Senate leaves without passing war funding
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 16, 2007 11:42:28 EST

After failing to find enough votes to pass a temporary war-funding bill — with or without provisions ordering U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by the end of 2008 — the Senate left town Friday for a two-week break without resolving what could be serious cash flow problems for the Defense Department.

With 60 votes needed to cut off debate, the Senate mustered 55 votes for a House-passed measure including a troop withdrawal plan, along with $50 billion in temporary funding for the war. A Republican substitute that would have provided money without the withdrawal strings got 43 votes.

Failure to pass what lawmakers have called a “bridge” fund to cover war costs for a limited time while waiting on approval of a larger budget has no immediate effect, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Thursday that he would have to begin planning in mid-December how he would pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan without extra money.

The Bush administration had asked for about $200 billion to cover war costs for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, and has been covering the costs so far by diverting money from other accounts. This is not an unusual practice, but Gates warned that shifting money is tedious because the Pentagon can move only $3.7 billion at a time — enough for only a few days of operations.

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate Democratic leader, said he did not believe the military faces any serious cash crisis.

“Congress just gave the Department of Defense $459 billion,” he said, referring to the 2008 defense appropriations bill signed into law by President Bush on Tuesday.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_senatevotes_iraq_071116w/



uhc comment: The Viet Nam war ended on April 30, 1975, and we're still fighting it amongst ourselves. The Iraq occupation will end sometime, and those veterans will be squabbling amongst themselves for the rest of their lives.

We've become quite proficient with killing and not very proficient learning from our mistakes.

[bluestateguy]

1. "cash flow problems for the Defense Department"

Only the US Defense Department could say that with a 460 billon dollar a year budget.