What the Republican House tried to hide.

As many of you already know, the House of Representatives had a clandestine meeting late at night to pass the Defense Appropriations Bill for 2006. Bypassing the usual one-day requirement between releasing and voting on a bill, the Republicans enacted the little-used "marital law" provision that resulted in only 40 minutes of debate over the bill that gives the Defense department it's budget. See this issue expertly posted here by mcjoan.

What were they trying to hide? Concerned about the late-night "martial law" house passage of the Defense Appropriations bill, I examined the differences between the 2005 and 2006 bills. Curious as to why the Republican leadership would want to suppress debate about the bill, I searched for possible red flags.

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<http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/20/182943/17>

This guy needs some input to his findings.

spends the most (dozens of times over) the rest of the world on get this, defense. Let's call it what it is, it is offense, and it is used to shore up a flagging economy.

and there they go on their predetermined flight plan of no contractor left behind. I smell
outsource! More drones, remote control toys from the air for Rummie's virtual war and
more mercenaries (excuse me I forgot to say contractors).

The numbers below expose the House slashing 16-30% of the funds devoted to paying our military personnel, depending on military branch. Funding to pay reserve personnel suffered a greater loss than active-duty personnel, with the Navy Reserve losing 30% compared to last year.

Listed below are the funds devoted to paying our military personnel in 2006 compared to 2005.

Branch Year 2005 Year 2006 Change %Change

Army $29,507,672,000 $24,357,895,000 (-)$5,149,777,000 (-)17.5%
Navy $24,416,157,000 $19,417,696,000 (-)$4,998,461,000 (-)20.5%
Marines $9,591,102,000 $7,839,813,000 (-)$1,751,289,000 (-)18.3%
Air Force $24,291,411,000 $20,083,037,000 (-)$4,208,374,000 (-)17.3%

Army Reserve $3,719,990,000 $2,862,103,000 (-)$857,887,000 (-)23.1%
Navy Reserve $2,108,232,000 $1,486,061,000 (-)$622,171,000 (-)29.5%
Marine Res. $653,073,000 $472,392,000 (-)$180,681,000 (-)27.7%
Air Force Res. $1,451,950,000 $1,225,360,000 (-)$226,590,000 (-)15.6%

Army Nat'l $5,915,229,000 $4,359,704,000 (-)1,555,525,000 (-)26.3%
Guard
Air Force $2,536,742,000 $2,028,215,000 (-)508,527,000 (-)20.0%
Nat'l Guard

WHY is the Republican-led House gutting our military personnel's pay? Do we have less personnel? Are they paid by some other avenue? Or, as I fear, is Congress simply slashing pay?

And at the same time they are pushing through US70 billion in tax cut for the rich.
In the same bill that is cutting US40 million from the poor
And borrowing another 700 billion from other countries.

Gee 70 billion in tax cut for the rich while screwing the army with a war on.
How sick do the US need to be before they wake up to reality?

Bush plundered the treasury.

Next year they can declare bankruptcy and auction off
what's left of the government to their corporate pals