Say Anything Blog

I’d like to say that nothing our crew of lying, manipulating, self-promoting, egotistical, out-of-touch bunch of elected nitwits in Washington does would surprise me, but they continue to top themselves:

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis.

Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

And just what part of the military will be affected by the pilfered funds? Nothing important, just little stuff like:

Mr. Wheeler said that senators took most of the cash for the projects from the “operations and maintenance” or O&M accounts.

“These are the accounts that pay for troop training, repairs, spares and supplies for vehicles, weapons, ships and planes, food and fuel,” Mr. Wheeler said.

Raiding those accounts to fund big-ticket projects the military does not want, but that benefit senators’ home states or campaign contributors, amounts to “rancid gluttony,” he said.

Fuel. Food. Vehicle, equipment, and and weapon repair. All that stuff’s over rated. Who needs well fed, well equipped troops when you can have another WW2 museum in New Orleans (there is already one here) and something or other named after a Kennedy (all bow down, please.)

Read the whole article and check out the way they stammer that, um, this won’t affect anything. Nothing at all:

“The operation and maintenance title is fully funded,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye, Hawaii Democrat, said during the debate on the bill. “There is no shortage. ... The committee is deeply concerned that the critical operational needs of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are met with the finest equipment available.”

I’d believe that except for one small thing - they’d rather climb a telephone pole to tell the American public a lie than to stand flat footed on the ground and tell us the truth. So…who would have the audacity to take money from the troops?

Money for the Kennedy Institute was inserted by Mr. Inouye and Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat, and Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican, sought the funding for the World War II museum.

The Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee jacks $20 million from our defense budget for his own pet project and then tells us that everything’s just peachy. No worries. They’ll never miss it. Nothing to see here, move along now.

I believe him, dont you?