Why Does Battlefield Armor Bother Republicans So Much?

[Boris Godunov]

Rumsfeld doesn't want to pay our troops on time, either:

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001519.html

ARMY PAYROLL = POLITICAL FOOTBALL

If we're going to send hundreds of thousands of young men and women into harm's way, the least we could do is not screw with their paychecks.

Common sense – maybe. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld presumably disagrees. Back in December, regular Defense Tech readers will recall, Rummy's braintrust decided to dip into the Army's payroll into order to fund truck armor and other wartime expenses. Congress would make up the difference later on, they figured, with a second, emergency "supplemental" funding bill. The fact that the payroll accounts would dry up in May didn't seem to factor into the Pentagon calculus -- except maybe as a lever to force Congress into action.

But as senators loaded the $80 billion supplemental with pet projects -- $23 million for a baseball stadium in DC, $32 million for forest roads in Cali -- and the Pentagon added billions in long-term programs to the supposedly last-minute funding measure, its progress slowed.

So now, Rummy is getting all weepy, complaining to Congress that they're keeping soldiers from getting paid.

"Our folks out there need these funds," he moped in handwritten notes to Capitol Hill chieftains, obtained by CNN.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

what a tool.

[DRoseDARs]

This is all just so sick...

[Theben]

But not very suprising.

[DanS]

Rumsfeld doesn't want to pay our troops on time, either

That's exactly the opposite of what the article says, mind you. Rather, the bloated bipartisan legislative mess that it became is the congress's fault. The congress was provided with the request in well enough time for them to take up the legislation.

[Dinner]

The military establishment always does this. They take from the soldiers so they can get on TV and claim they need money for the soldiers right now. Then they redirect the money to some pet project and come back to ask for yet more money to solve the problem they created and perpetuated to begin with. This is a tried and true tactic.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by DanS
That's exactly the opposite of what the article says, mind you. Rather, the bloated bipartisan legislative mess that it became is the congress's fault. The congress was provided with the request in well enough time for them to take up the legislation.

I'm sorry, did you just blithely ignore the fact that the Pentagon took the money from Army payrolls and put it into other things in the first place...

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001269.html

G.I.S' PAYCHECKS FUND TRUCK ARMOR

So the Pentagon leadership has finally recognized that they need to armor up their trucks. But they've settled on a damn peculiar way of paying for the work. They're dipping into soldiers' paychecks to do it.

Let me explain. For this fiscal year, 2005, Rummy & Co. asked for $25.7 million to secure its fleet of trucks. And Congress granted the request, when it passed the Pentagon's budget in July.

But by November 19th, the Pentagon brass realized they had screwed up, Defense Department documents show. There was no way $25.7 million could pay for armoring the M915 trucks, Medium Tactical Vehicles, and other vehicles hauling supplies through Iraq; to do the job right, more like $580 million would be needed. The chiefs had under budgeted, more than twenty-fold.

The problem was, the Defense Department's budget for the year was already passed. And it was too early, yet, for a second, "supplemental" funding bill. So, instead, the Pentagon's eyeshades decided to "reprogram" money, from one military project into another.

Now, the accountants could have taken money from hulking, multi-billion dollar items, like the F-22 fighter or the creaky missile defense program. But no. Instead, the cash – along with about a billion dollars in other funds -- was taken from the Army's payroll. From the accounts to pay soldiers in the field.

With that money gone, there's now only enough cash left in the register to keep paying soldiers until May or so. If a "supplemental" budget bill – rumored to be $75 billion or more -- isn't passed by then, there will be no paychecks for G.I.s.

Congress will never let that happen, of course. No politician in his right mind is going to keep soldiers from getting paid. So, in the end, G.I.s will get the money they've been promised.

But, still, wouldn't it have been better to get this armor money together in the first place? The war has been going on since last March. Planning for it started in 2002. And only on November 19th did the Pentagon realize it needed more money to armor up its trucks?

...and is shifting blame, after the fact, to Congress? Nevermind the fact that Rumsfeld was having very public delusions about how big and in what form our forces should take going into Iraq. I seem to recall him going on and on about having a small number of troops being sufficient and that lighter forces would be more effective in this war than they were during the First Persian Gulf War.

[DanS]

I'm sorry, did you just blithely ignore the fact that the Pentagon took the money from Army payrolls and put it into other things in the first place...

I ignored it because it is a perfectly acceptable thing for the Pentagon to do.

The Pentagon can pay the soldiers without explicit appropriation from the congress, so when the calendar doesn't permit an additional appropriation for urgently needed equipment, you reprogram money from the already appropriated payroll account. By law, the checks for our soldiers will always clear from the payroll account even if the appropriation has run out. The congress can debate the matter on its own time.

The only problem that anybody -- including the congress -- has with this process is if the Pentagon doesn't buy the urgently needed equipment. If the Pentagon doesn't buy the equipment then something's broken at the Pentagon. Do you seriously think that the congress or the people have any problem with uparmoring humvees ASAP rather than waiting for the legislative calendar for the appropriation?

I blame congress for the bloaty pork-ridden bill because some of it has nothing to do with defense or supporting diplomacy. This bill is the last train out of town during this fiscal year, so that's why you're seeing it loaded high with crap before its passage tonight or tomorrow. I blame the congress despite the fact that I'm a direct beneficiary of the upgrade money for RFK stadium -- I've been to two games already.

[Verto]

Kay Bailey Hutchison voted yes, so to her.

Sen. Cornyn, OTOH...

[Dinner]

I'm glad the armored truck bill passed but I'm still trying to understand why so many Republican law makers voted against giving our guys armor. Especially since IEDs on roadways is the leading threat.