Be INFORMED

Thursday, March 01, 2007

NC's Cost for War Under Proposed Budget and NC's Loss From Same Budget

   For those of you living in the state of North Carolina, here is what the presidents war in Iraq will cost you if bush's proposed budget for fiscal 2008 gets passed.

National Priorities

THE PRESIDENT’S BUDGET
THE IMPACT ON NORTH CAROLINA

Selected Budget Cuts to North Carolina‡
Low-income Energy Assistance Program $44.1 million
Head Start $7.6 million
Child Care and Development Block Grant $2.0 million
Community Development Block Grant $24.1 million
Special Education $18.3 million
Community Oriented Policing Services $2.9 million
Clean Water State Revolving Fund $3.4 million

And for North Carolina taxpayers…
Cost of the Iraq War $12.3 billion
‡The FY2007 budget was not completed at the time of publication. The above cuts and other information in this publication compare the proposed budget for FY2008 withFY2006.

More For War
The administration is requesting an additional $100 billion in war-related
spending for this fiscal year (2007). Of that money, about $78 billion would be for the Iraq War alone,bringing that war’s total cost through
FY2007 to $456billion.
If Congress passes this request, the cost to North Carolina taxpayers for the Iraq War will rise to $12.3billion.
And, the budget proposes another $145 billion in war-related spending for FY2008.
Total military spending (which includes war spending) for this fiscal year (2007) would amount to $620 billion rising to nearly $650 billion next year. Military spending would be higher than it was during the Vietnam War or the Korean War, after taking inflation into account.

Notes: *NPP’s analysis of supplementary materials, ‘Additional 2007 and 2008 proposals’ included in the Budget of the U.S. Government,
FY2008, Appendix, attributed $78.1 billion of the additional money requested for 2007 to the Iraq War. The total is only through FY07 and
does not include any of the requested $145 billion for FY08. IRS data is used to determine state shares.
National Priorities Project, Inc. 􀂍 17 New South Street, Suite 302 􀂍 Northampton, MA 01060
www.nationalpriorities.org 􀂍 info@nationalpriorities.org 􀂍 413.584.9556
© 2007 National Priorities Project, Inc.


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DoD Office of Inspector General Report On Military Readiness

      Listed below is a short reminder of how much that group on the Republican side of the isle cares about our military. I am posting bits and pieces of this report from the  Department of Defense Office of Inspector General so the next time that some un-educated Fox News viewer tells you that the Democrats do not support the U.S. troops in Iraq, you can show them just how much their beloved Bush Crime Family members care.

    The Democrats, by making sure that our troops have the proper equipment and training to go into Iraq is the only way of showing that anyone cares about OUR people! That asshole in the White House certainly isn't doing it! Hell! He won't even take care of the troops that we have here in the United States in our military hospitals!

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Department of Defense Office of Inspector General                                The Entire Report (PDF)      January 25,2007

We performed this audit to determine whether units deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan were equipped in accordance with mission requirements. Based on responses from approximately 1,100 Service members, they experienced shortages of force-protection equipment, such as up-armored vehicles, electronic countermeasure devices, crew-served weapons, and communications equipment. As a result, Service
members were not always equipped to effectively complete their missions.

We also recommend that the Commander, U.S. Central Command enforce policy requiring units rotating into theater to conduct a review of
current theater requirements for up-armored vehicles, individual body armor, and electronic countermeasure devices within 60 days of arrival in their area of responsibility; obtain those updated requirements in a timely manner; confirm the validity of current theater requirements for sourcing; and provide the updated requirements to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, Headquarters, Department of the Army so that the validated theater requirements can be satisfied (finding A).

The Request for Forces process did not always ensure that Service members who performed missions that they do not traditionally perform --such as training, provincial reconstruction, detainee operations, and explosive ordnance disposal --received the equipment necessary to perform their wartime mission. As a result, Service members
performed missions without the proper equipment, used informal procedures to obtain equipment and sustainment support, and canceled or postponed missions while waiting to receive equipment. We recommend that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness develop and implement policy that addresses inter-Service responsibilities for funding, equipping, and sustaining forces performing nontraditional missions. We also recommend that the Commander, U.S. Central Command enforce existing policies

Scope Limitations. The Multi-National Corps-Iraq and the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan command staff limited the locations we visited, the units we reviewed, and the number of Service members who participated in sensing sessions because of scheduled operational missions, safety concerns, and availability of transportation. As a result, we interviewed available Service members.

                    * * * *

   Our warmongering president likes to send people into gunfights with the equivalent of knives for weapons.  

   I will be posting more of this report on Friday.