Today's Boston Globe called attention to a horrifying aspect of Bush's war spending: the illegal use of huge "emergency" war budgets, spent without any oversight, outside the normal federal spending processes, not even factored into the federal deficit calculations.
The emergency supplemental budgets include far less detailed information than is required in the federal budget.. And unlike the normal budget process, in which multiple congressional committees review the requests for nearly a year, the emergency expenditures are reviewed by the House and Senate appropriations committees, which have smaller staffs than the congressional armed services panels _ and they are under enormous pressure to approve them swiftly.
So far $418 BILLION of our money has been spent in this way. Continue under the fold to see why this spending constitutes a potentially impeachable offense...
Congress has tried to stop Bush from this huge, unauthorized spending spree:
Members of Congress have repeatedly called on the White House to use the traditional budget process to pay for the war. Sen. John McCain Republican of Arizona, and Sen. Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, co-authored legislation requiring the war funding to be routed through the normal federal budget process.
The White House has resisted, maintaining they cannot predict how many troops will be needed and therefore cannot predict costs a year in advance.
Bush signed the defense bill containing the McCain-Byrd amendment this fall, but he later issued a "signing statement" asserting he has the power as commander-in-chief to ignore the budgeting law.
WTF? Doesn't a President's Oath of Office require him to execute, not "ignore", the law?
Bush is requesting $160 billion more of this so-called emergency supplemental funding for next year. This request goes to the House and Senate appropriation committees. Let's tell Rep. David Obey, incoming House Appropriations Committee Chair, and Jack Murtha, incoming House Military Appropriations Subcommittee Chair, to just say NO to Bush's supplemental funding request. Make Bush fund his war through the normal budget process, so we the people can see how our money is being mis-spent.
And if Bush spends the money anyway, via his bullshit "signing statements", then there is no choice left but to impeach. This is our country, our money, our government, our Constitution, and we want it all back.