The Budget "does not specify what the funds are to be used for. It leaves that decision to the House Appropriations Committee which will be deciding that later in the year," Chuck Fant, spokesperson for the House Majority side of the Budget Committee, told APN.
"I think anytime a country is at war, the political leadership wants to make sure that it supports the troops in the field and one of the points we make as Democrats is our troops will always have our full support as long as they’re on active duty and we're not going to cut funding for the them," Fant explained.
"I don’t care if they call it ‘giving candy to children,’ [Kucinich] isn’t going to support it," an aide to Kucinich told APN.
Kucinich’s Office also pointed out the Budget is still important. While it’s true the Budget is not the final say on how funds are to be spent, often the Appropriations Committee follows what was written in the Budget. "That’s usually what they do. Congress doesn’t usually take recommendations and throw them out the window," an aide said.
Hammill disagreed, saying Republicans frequently did not end up supporting their own Budgets in the last few years.
SUPPLEMENTAL VERSUS BUDGET
This is the first time in years that Iraq and/or Afghanistan spending are appearing in the Fiscal Year Budget.
Previously, President Bush had requested, and Congress had funded, several emergency Supplemental appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan. "From a fiscal responsibility view it's a troubling system," Hammill said.
"The argument was this was emergency spending. They either really didn't know what they needed or they were trying to hide the ball," Fant said.
Pelosi’s Office and the Budget Office said there is now a concerted effort by Democrats to keep Iraq and Afghanistan funding within the FY Budget each year.
But some advocates, like Atlanta’s Bobbie Paul, Executive Director of Women’s Action for New Directions, believe it may have been better to have the Supplementals separate.
Including Overseas military spending in the FY Budget often convolutes any public understanding of what the money is to be used for, Paul says. And indeed, in this case that appears to be exactly what’s happened.
The Budget does not specifically state how the money is to be spent. It could be for keeping US troops to continue policing a Civil War; could be for equipment repairs and relocation; could be for Iraq; could be for Afghanistan; could be for training Iraqi troops; could be for protecting US Embassies.
APPLES TO APPLES
President Bush made his Budget request, and it included $145 billion for Overseas military operations in FY 2008 and $50 billion in 2009. It requested $0 for 2010, 2011, and 2012. The FY Budgets currently project five years forward.
Congress typically uses the President’s Budget as the basis from which to make changes, so that analysts can make "apples to apples" comparisons, the Budget Office explained to APN.
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