Bush Asks Congress for Armed Forces Funding Shift

Although the headline emphasizes Bush’s request for a budget revision to shift $3.2 billion from particular defense items into another troop buildup, the real story here is the composition of the appropriations bill Bush wants Congress to approve. During an international flight on March 10th, President Bush signed a letter (likely prepared by his cabinet) beckoning Congress to approve his latest armed forces appropriations bill, which would enable the deployment of 8,200 more troops to Afghanistan and Iraq in addition to his separate planned deployment of 21,000 American soldiers to Iraq. Given that about 47.5% of the requested funds are to fund Iraqi police and security forces to help the Iraqi government be more able to enforce its laws to eventually reduce dependence on American forces, it is likely that a two-thirds supermajority coalition of Republican and Bluedog Democrats will vote in favor of the bill in both chambers. Any revision that passes both the House and the Senate are unlikely to be much different from the original appropriations bill, as the 52% of requested funds going towards combat support troops is necessary to stabilize attacks against coalition forces, and the 0.5% of requested funds going towards reconstruction teams is appropriate for restoring infrastructure damaged in attacks. Therefore, it is safe to say that Bush’s appropriations proposal is a Condorcet winner in both chambers of Congress and will then (obviously) be signed into effect by President Bush.