Time For Hard-Ball?

07/18/2007

Paul Munnis


Too bad, for a minute there I thought the Senate was really going to play some hardball with the Bush Administration.

The headline read that they were setting aside the Military Appropriations Bill but then later in the story it said they would take it up once again in September. All that does is run up the body count and the deficit and buy Bush more time to screw things up.

I think they will have to do something like refuse to allow any military Bills that authorizes funds to be spent to come to the floor of either chamber or any vote taken on any military or mid-east spending until the Administration starts to negotiate the future of the U.S. Military and its operations with the Senate leadership. Yes, that even includes embassy funds for Iraq.

But I understand that’s fraught with charges about how Democrats won’t support our troops, how we are wimps, etc., etc. Still, creating defense budget gridlock is one way to retaliate and deal with it.

I think Congress could start now by telling the Navy they cannot go ahead with the orders for more carriers. I think they need to tell the Army that they cannot order more MRAP’s until we see if they will be abandoned in Iraq or not. I think that a freeze on orders for military drones to be deployed in Iraq needs to be ordered for the Air Force until a decision has been made concerning the future of Iraq and America’s role in it. I think we need to start ordering a Pentagon budget be made up that assumes the troops are home by May 1st. In summary, I think that the way to do this is to simply refuse any legislation for military funding onto the floors of Congress until the GOP comes to its senses.

In this way I think that Mr. Bush needs to start seeing life without support for his military adventures abroad. Also, I think that at a cost of $12 Billion per month for extending the war effort our military needs to start identifying what programs they will set-aside to pay for the war in Iraq before any Defense Appropriations Bill is voted upon by the Senate. Yes, that includes payments to the existing contractors in Iraq too.

Until some hard-ball is played we are going to get same-o, same-o, from the GOP.

Democrats need to put a proposal in front of the American people and get a poll taken on it. “Do You Want Funds Cut-off from the Military until Bush acts responsibly and negotiates with Congress to bring home our troops?” If they do -- then pull the plug. If they don’t – then stop beating our heads against the wall.

Also, I wonder if it’s possible to bring suit against a Senator for refusing to represent his District? I am thinking for example of Norm Coleman. His District wants us out of Iraq. Coleman says: “No!” Can’t we sue him for not representing the people of his District? He is violating his responsibility for representation. He is under contract to the voters isn’t he? Well better trained legal minds than mine need to grope with the issue.

The American people need to be paid attention to and not just flipped off.

In the meantime a few e-Mails to Norm Coleman from people in his District telling him about the votes he has just lost would be very much in order.

If not these things then others must be invented. It’s time for Democrats to speak up and let their leaders know what they want done.