Congress: A Brain is an Easy Thing to Waste

Neocons love chanting their "Support the troops" slogan at every opportunity, but that doesn't mean they'll want to take care of wounded soldiers. With George Bush in the White House, combat veterans being treated at Walter Reed Army Hospital have been told to pay for their own damn meals, and the Veterans Administration has had to endure severe budget cuts.

And now this:

Congress appears ready to slash funding for the research and treatment of brain injuries caused by bomb blasts, an injury that military scientists describe as a signature wound of the Iraq war. House and Senate versions of the 2007 Defense appropriation bill contain $7 million for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center — half of what the center received last fiscal year. ...

"Honestly, they would have loved to have funded it, but there were just so many priorities," says Jenny Manley, spokeswoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee. "They didn't have any flexibility in such a tight fiscal year."

Ah, you see, it's all a matter of exemplary fiscal restraint.

Or could it be that politicians only advocate belt-tightening when it serves their purpose? After all, they habitually vote to waste billions on new defense systems that prove to be comically inept and/or are subject to cost overruns of 200, 300 percent.

But supporting soldiers with brain injuries? Come on, be reasonable. There's just no money.

That's in part because the Pentagon (which literally lost in excess of a trillion dollars over the years — just plain lost track of it) is busy patrolling Africa's Atlantic coast to combat illegal fishing, buying transport planes at twice the necessary cost, and, in general, dodging accountability about its finances.

As Newsweek wrote earlier this year: 

The untold tale is the wastage and overpricing that continue to lard up the Pentagon budget to the tune of perhaps $100 billion, with Congress scarcely paying attention. In some cases, corporate welfare-type programs that were launched in the '90s — at a time the Clinton administration felt defense contractors needed help because of post-Cold War budget cuts — are still on the books. And today they are feathering the bottom lines of giant companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, even though Big Defense has long since returned to health. 

In five and a half years, Bush has done nothing to rein in military spending. On the contrary. While he "talks a good game," he's less than fully sincere about his reform efforts.

After Bush proposed a nearly half-trillion dollar defense budget for fiscal 2007 earlier this month — one that doesn’t include many of the costs of the Iraq war — even some of the president’s loyalists were appalled. 

Almost forgot: Mr. Bush is looking forward to a new fleet of VH-71 presidential helicopters that is — for now — scheduled to cost 6.1 billion dollars.

Those soldiers with brain injuries will sure be in awe over the president's fancy new flying machine, don't you think?

Maybe one day he'll wave at them from up high. To, you know, show his support.

Comments

[George Arndt]

It looks like that soldier isn't the only one with brain damage..

[Jeff the Poustman]

So many of the blogs here point out things in the world that are sickening, but somehow this one stand out as especially so. Beyond contemptible and into evil.

[Dave]

We can also spend 250 million dollars to build a bridge to a small island in Alaska that's mostly wildlife preserve. Do you think that the fact that one of Alaska's senators's family owns a good portion of the small amount of private land on this island has any bearing on this expenditure? Perhaps the good senator could give up just a little bit of roadway so that these guys he voted to send to Iraq could get some treatment?

[fish]

But theres plenty of money to throw at Blackwater, Dyncorp and the rest of the mercs peddled by Bush's cronys!