Lynn C. Woolsey: “minutes ago the House approved the fiscal year 2006 Homeland Security appropriation bill to the tune of…”

“minutes ago the House approved the fiscal year 2006 Homeland Security appropriation bill to the tune of, underwhelmingly, $37 billion. In a vacuum, $37 billion sounds like a lot of money, and it is, but when you consider that Congress has appropriated over $100 billion on the security of Iraq this year alone, and more than $200 billion overall, $37 billion sounds much less significant. In fact, the $37 billion spending bill that was approved today represents less than 5 percent of the U.S. annual discretionary budget. Yet the Iraq war this year, this year alone, represents well over 10 percent of our annual discretionary budget. Clearly, something is wrong with this picture. Spending on homeland security, while inadequate in its amount, focuses on the right things to protect America: First responders, border and port security, and cargo inspections. On the other hand, funding for the war in Iraq continues to focus on poorly planned military operations and irresponsible no-bid contracts to war profiteers like Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root. At the same time, the Iraq supplemental spending bill of over $200 billion has neglected to provide adequate funds for body armor for the troops. This is a particularly egregious mistake in light of the 2004 study indicating as many as a quarter of all troop deaths could have been prevented if the most advanced body armor had been provided to every single soldier in Iraq.…”