Police Radios and War

[The Straight Story]

Police Radios and War
By Bob Brewin [email protected] April 13, 2009

President Obama promised that the $83.4 billion 2009 war supplemental spending bill he sent to Capitol Hill yesterday would be the last one ever, and the Office of Management and Budget declared that in the future the president is committed to "honest budgeting and fiscal discipline" in preparation of budgets.

Based on a quick read of the detailed supplemental request, one wonders if it would have been a good idea to exercise some fiscal discipline in this bill, starting with Congress. (I know, fiscal discipline and Congress is an oxymoron.)

The bill includes a $71.6 million line item for the Capitol Police to buy a nifty, new encrypted VHF radio system capable of operations on streets around the Hill as well as in buildings and tunnels, with funding to run through 2012.

Why is this item in a war supplemental? OMB director Peter Orszag said in a letter to Obama that "as a matter of comity, appropriation requests for the legislative branch are transmitted without change." I'm sure glad House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, only wanted a radio system and not an air force for the Capitol Police.

Then there's the annual wildfire suppression budget line, a feature of war supplementals ever since President Bush hatched the idea six years ago. This year's firefighting tab includes $200 million for the National Forest Service and another $50 millon for the National Park Service.

...

The State Department racked up more than $1 billion in supplemental funds for new or improved embassies, as well as $5.5 million for mobile mail screening units for embassies and consulates worldwide. These systems are filled with all kinds of gizmos to detect explosives and chemicals that are probably needed, but why are they funded in the Defense supplemental?

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?filepath=/dailyfed/0409/041309bb.htm

[Tesha]

1. I think one huge improvement we could make in our government...

...would be to pass a Constitutional Amendment that would
ban "Omnibus" bills and other bills larded up with a huge
number of items unrelated to the substance of the main bill.

No more attaching your favorite project to a bill just because
the bill is certain to pass, come Hell or high water.

You want to fund a war, fund the war, but don't fund your
favorite perk nor try to win converts to the war with amendments
that are tantamount to bribes.

Tesha