Text Fwd: CYNICAL POLITICS OF EMPIRE

Bruce Gagnon blog
on May 14, 2010
CYNICAL POLITICS OF EMPIRE

Afghanistan War $$ hidden in Democratic Party bill

The ruling Democratic Party, so afraid of its war in Afghanistan's rising unpopularity with the American people, has chosen to create a war funding supplemental bill that sugar coats the $33 billion more for the Central Asian quagmire in layers of hard to pass up frosting.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/sites/afterdowningstreet.org/files/crsescalation.pdf

The Administration has requested $63 billion in FY2010 supplemental appropriations:

• $33 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD) primarily for deploying 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan;

• $4.5 billion in war-related foreign aid to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan;

• $5.1 billion to replenish the U.S. Disaster Relief Fund administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA);

• $2.8 billion for Haiti reconstruction and foreign aid in the wake of the earthquake;

• $13.4 billion to compensate veterans exposed to Agent Orange;

• $3.4 billion to settle land trust claims of American Indians in the long-standing Cobell case; and

• $1.2 billion to settle the discrimination claims of 70,000 black farmers in the Pigford II case.