$82 billion for war loaded with unrelated items

As you should know, the White House asked Congress for $82 billion (sigh, couldn't we spend it on something else?) in special spending Monday for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now what you may not now is that it is loaded with items unrelated to the war including funds for a long-planned military reorganization and for activities such as tsunami aid.

In fact, according to the Chicago Tribune, the request includes $3 billion that is unrelated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and $19 billion more that is not directly related to U.S. military costs there. Among the extras is $5.3 billion to pay for a restructuring of the Army and, to a lesser degree, the Marine Corps. The administration chose to not include those items in the $419.3 billion defense budget for 2006 that Bush submitted to Congress last week. And $400 million is going to countries like Poland as reward for joining the U.S. in its war in Iraq.

Now first, I think its dishonest to first of all, not include this package in the budget, and secondly to include items not directly related to the war. I urge Congress to take a hard look at how this money is being spent this time around.