Republicans Call Bush's Bluff On War Funding Threats

This would be funny except it's not funny. Know what I mean? On the heels of Congress passing the largest Defense spending bill ever, Bush and his bots are crying "poor" and were threatening to "lay off" 200,000 Pentagon employees if Bush didn't get everything he asked for.

Well, the Republican lawmakers called his bluff.

But in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Virginia Republicans Tom Davis and Frank Wolf say the administration's threat is baseless, because the Pentagon has the authority to make shifts in its budget to avoid forcing employees to take leaves of absences.

...The letter -- also signed by Reps. Jim Moran, D-VA, Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-MD, Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-DC, John Sarbanes, D-MD, and Elijah Cummings, D-MD -- comes less than a month after Congress passed a $459 billion defense spending bill. The Pentagon has "general transfer authority of $3.7 billion" and can also reallocate $8 billion of "excess working capital fund cash" to meet other budget, the letter states.

Citing this monetary flexibility, Rep. Moran labeled Gates' doomsday furlough proclamation an "old budget showdown tactic." Indeed, President Bush, himself, has been ramping up the rhetoric, repeatedly warning of severe damages to the Defense Department in the absence of an agreement on Iraq War funds.

"Given that the administration's threats were announced on the heels of Congress passing the largest defense spending bill ever, their cries of poor mouth raise a red flag the size of the North Pole," Moran said.

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