Monday, February 28, 2005

Hey, Sarge, My Check Bounced. I'm Outta Here...

From DefenseTech.org:
Give us more money, or soldiers aren't going to get paid. That's the cynical game the Pentagon's leadership has been playing with the Army's budget in recent months. And now, it's crunch time.

Since the fall, Rumsfeld & Co. have been dipping into the Army's day-to-day funds -- like money for soldiers' paychecks -- and then daring Congress not to make up the difference with a second, "supplemental" pile of cash.

The tab comes due this Spring, Defense Daily reports. The Army needs $41 billion of that supplemental kitty by then, or else it is going to go broke, without cash left to pay G.I.s.

But key members of Congress, like Sen. John McCain, are getting increasingly fed up with this backdoor effort to add tens of billions to the defense budget by essentially holding G.I.'s livelihood hostage. Sooner or later, things are going to come to a head.

Them brass hats got brass balls to stick up Congress this way. It would be foolish of them not to pay heavily armed, pissed-off GI's. I think there'd be enough unpaid C-130 pilots and ship captains to give 'em all a ride home.

I'd love to see a demonstration like the "Bonus Army" of 1932 that got FDR elected and gave rise to the WWII GI Bill. This time, I don't think the cops could throw 'em out of DC. I'd love to see 'em try.

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