Congress has passed a generous defense budget, but not funding to continue the war in Iraq past March. So what will the Bush administration do? They’ll start laying off DoD civilian employees in the U.S. They'll say they need to do it to pay for bullets and body armor for troops in Iraq.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Unless the U.S. Congress passes funding for the Iraq war soon, the Army and Marine Corps could have to lay off employees and terminate contracts next year.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said if Congress fails to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the military could be forced to close some bases, and furlough 200,000 civilians and contractors in February, The Christian Science Monitor reported Monday.
The situation becomes especially urgent because federal law requires workers to be notified 60 days in advance of being furloughed, the newspaper reported.
"The high degree of uncertainty on funding for the war is immensely complicating this task and will have many real consequences for this department and for our men and women in uniform," Gates said Thursday.
Didn’t congress learn anything from the shutdown of the gov’t when Clinton and the Republican congress clashed during a budget dispute? The Congress looses in this type of fight.
If the Congress had any spine they would invoke their constitutional power. They alone have the power to declare war. If they were serious about ending the war they would revoke the authorization they gave Bush and order a phased troop withdrawal begin within 60 days and be complete within 365 days
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