Supplemental war funding: the dirty little game BOTH parties play

Too many Congressional Democrats have gone along with Bush’s supplemental defense spending requests, many of which directly relevant to Iraq or Afghanistan. Not quite “out to lunch,” but in the same vein, I’m sure.

As Fred Kaplan points out, how does something like basic military pay get put in a supplemental bill?

(T)he practice (has) a corrosive impact. It allows the military services to elude even minimal standards of discipline. Rather than set priorities and make choices between one program and another, or between short-term needs and long-term wishes, as all other federal agencies must do, the backdoor supplemental lets them have it all—including billions of dollars' worth that has nothing to do with an emergency, in some cases little to do with any wars.

It’s shameful, and if Democrats (including whichever one gets nominated for the presidency) try to raise the issue of “budgetary prudence” against McCain, it will be just one more, one more BIG example of two-party hypocrisy.