Democrats Play Politics with Military Funding

The American people are communicating loudly and clearly to Congress that out-of-control spending is unacceptable. Recent polls rank government debt as the top threat to the future well-being of our country. With a public more vigilant than ever about monitoring the national deficit, big-spending liberals are taking action -- but not by reducing spending. Instead, Speaker Pelosi and company are looking for creative ways to hide their deficit-growing policies.

The majority party is so out of touch with mainstream concerns about mounting debt that they even exploited a military funding bill to force through more spending. Months ago, Defense Secretary Robert Gates requested $33 billion in supplemental funding to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, urging Congress to approve the spending before Memorial Day. Without new funding, Gates warned, payment to troops could be suspended by August. Presented with an urgent, must-pass bill, House Democrats saw an opportunity. The Memorial Day deadline came and went, as House liberals busied themselves with attaching one domestic spending item after another to the defense funding. Alarmed by the delay, Secretary Gates outlined the disruptions to pay and services the military would suffer without funding, cautioning, "We begin to have to do stupid things if the supplemental is not passed by July 4."

By the time the funding bill came to a vote on the House floor on July 1, the majority had tacked on billions of dollars in superfluous domestic spending, using the military's straightforward appeal for resources as a vehicle to push through a $72 billion monstrosity. Less than half of the funds in the bill were devoted to war operations.

Liberals in the House refused to remove the extraneous spending even after the measure stalled in the Senate. With still no resolution in mid-July, Gates warned it would be a "disaster" if the bill didn't pass by August. House Democrats finally relented, and a clean bill containing only the necessary defense spending passed on July 27 with overwhelming bipartisan support.

The missions in Afghanistan and Iraq are critical to our national security, and it's outrageous that the Democratic majority held vital funding hostage for months in an attempt force through domestic spending completely unrelated to defense. Our men and women in uniform deserve better than to have their pay and resources jeopardized while Democrats play politics with the defense budget. Furthermore, the debt crisis requires that any spending be subjected to careful scrutiny on its own merits, not concealed by legislative gimmicks. As Congress begins consideration of annual appropriations bills for the next fiscal year, conservatives will continue efforts to hold the majority accountable for every dollar it attempts to add to the deficit.

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