Gates warns of layoffs without war funding

[babylonsister]

Gates warns of layoffs without war funding

By Julian E. Barnes and Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
November 16, 2007


WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that he will have to lay off 200,000 civilian employees and contractors, terminate military contracts and partially shut down U.S. military bases unless Congress acts quickly to approve additional funding for the Iraq war.

Echoing similar warnings from past funding battles, Gates said the Army and Marine Corps will develop plans for sharp spending cuts unless Congress moves to provide $196 billion President Bush has requested.

On Tuesday, Bush signed a separate $471-billion Defense appropriations bill. But that spending measure includes little of the money needed to keep the wars going in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The House has offered the president $50 billion as a bridge fund for the wars, but it would require most combat troops to leave Iraq by December 2008.

The White House has vowed to veto the bill if it passes the Senate in a vote planned for today.

Gates said he has little ability to move money within the Defense budget to pay for war expenses, despite new authority contained in the Defense appropriations bill signed by Bush this week.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-warvote16nov16,1,3387566.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

[spanone]

1. Poor pentagon will have to eek out a living on 460 BILLION FUCKING DOLLARS

to hell with gates

[SharonAnn]

9. This is what I told my husabnd last night. Cut the $$ and make them take it from contractors.

When their contractor friends don't get paid, they'll say "uncle".

[Horse with no Name]

2. maybe if they could find the missing billions

they could fund them properly?:shrug:

[Jim__]

3. I hope the Dems stand-up to this horseshit. - n/t

[CorpGovActivist]

4. Start with the Catering Contract...

... and let Gates and the JCS brown bag it.

- Dave

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Now isn't that sad. I had a poster way back in the late 60's that read:

"It will be a great day in America, when the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy fighters and the schools have all the money they need" or something like that. The Pentagon's lack of funds ($471 billion) just breaks my heart.

[walldude]

6. Blackmail... why am I not surprised.

Using the troops and employees as hostages in a blackmail scam, how um.. Bush-like.

[dflprincess]

7. I don't suppose any of these contractors he'll have to lay off include Blackwater?

n/t

[babylonsister]

8. I suspect not. Too bad, that. nt

[Recursion]

12. DoD doesn't have many Blackwater contracts

Most of Blackwater's Iraq contracts are through State and I think Energy

[lyonn]

10. Got an idea Gates, send about 50,000 troops home

And start working with the Iraqi Govt. to get them to bring security to their own country. Wasn't that the plan 4 years ago?

[zbdent]

11. Sounds like the excuses they make when trying to pass funding for schools

locally (Ohio has an effed-up system, which the Repukes made sure was unconstitutional, and have yet done anything to fix since they took charge in 1995) ...

"Oh, oh, oh! If you don't pass the funding, we'll have to cut things ... like the football program, etc." Of course, the last thing they'd cut is the football program ... the band would go really quick ...

[Bitwit1234]

13. So did he tell that to the republicans who refused to pass it

Wasn't the democrats fault...that should be told all over the MSM, but it won't.

[sampsonblk]

15. He isn't complaining that this bill didn't pass

Gates wasn't for this bill. And if it had passed, Bush would have vetoed it anyway. It wasn't going to become law.

Gates is complaining that the Dems need to hurry up and pass a bill that has no restrictions. I am with Reid: take what we give you or you get nothing.

This is what Reid and Pelosi should have done back in the spring. Better late than never.

[pinto]

14. BS. Gates, go ask Chalabi if you're so strapped for cash. Sure he's got some of that

CIA money tucked away somewhere.

[Hydra]

16. Poor DoD needs 200 billion more to keep the gravy train going

how long until the normal people start calling bullshit about all this money flying out the window? Salary in the armed forces is so pitiful that even for 2 million of them it's probably only about 50 billion all told.

[focusfan]

17. SOOOO what`s bad about that

They could cut the military budget by 90 percent and be able to do what they really need to do,maybe the military wouldn`t need more wars to keep busy?