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| Nice Haul |
March 23, 2007 |
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Dear Friends,
We voted on Friday on supplemental spending for the Iraq War. It was an odd bill. It spent money to fight a war while attaching strings to virtually ensure we lose it.
Under our Constitution, we divide power when it comes to national security. The Congress has considerable power to raise and support Armies and Navies, to authorize the use of force, to regulate and oversee the services. But there are limits to our power. Our tools are blunt and decisive, and they were designed to be so.
As well informed national leaders we never hesitate to contribute to the debate and make our thoughts known about what we should do and how we should do it. But as an institution, we do not manage the military, command the troops, conduct diplomacy or decide the strategies. A bicameral body of 535 individuals could not possibly do this well.
It is unwise to try to use our blunt legislative tools as a substitute for executive decisions with which we may not always agree.
The Congress should not micromanage dwell times and deployment dates to prevent our military from being able to carry out the orders they have been given. We should not slowly bleed our forces in the field or put out more hoops for our soldiers to jump through. Their task is tough enough without the Congress making it harder.
If a majority of the House wants to stop funding for our men and women in Iraq or wants to rescind the authorization to use force, those are the real tools we have at our disposal. And the Congress would then have to accept the consequences of that choice.
But I don’t believe a majority of the House would have voted to cut off funds.
Getting the votes they needed to pass this unwise bill was pretty expensive. The sponsors added over $20 billion – that’s $20,000,000,000 -- in little extras. There’s $25 million for spinach farmers in California, $75 million for peanut storage in Georgia and even $120 million for shrimp and menhaden fishermen. I didn’t even know what a menhaden was. Apparently it is a fish used to make Omega-3 nutritional supplements and a single Houston company harvests two-thirds of the entire East Coast catch of this oily little fish. Nice haul.
It’s time for the House to exercise the kind of statesmanship that transcends party lines. The supplemental spending bill fell well short of that mark.
Wish you were here,
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