thedrifter
07-13-06, 09:55 AM
July 12, 2006
Skelton: Many signs of trouble for military
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Military forces are beginning to suffer from the strain of extended deployments to Iraq without enough money or force structure, says the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
Rep. Ike Skelton, a long-time critic of the current force structure that he says is too small, said Wednesday there are many signs of trouble. The Army, he said, is not able to pay some utility bills, some defense workers are on the unemployment lines and equipment readiness is slipping to “historic lows,” Skelton said in a speech on the House floor.
Recalling that President Bush told the U.S. military that “help was on the way” when he accepted the Republican nomination for president, Skelton said the current problems led him to ask “who, exactly, is being helped?”
The $350 billion cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is partly to blame, Skelton said, but “this Congress has continually provided the supplemental funds the administration has requested to wage the war and has even increased the defense budget by 19 percent since 2001. So I ask, how can it be that the Army is closing or curtailing family support programs and laying off employees?”
The answer, Skelton said, is that the administration has not been asking for enough money to cover the war so it is diverting money from other military programs to cover it.
“The Army knows it has a problem,” Skelton said, noting it had asked for $4.9 billion more for 2006 than was approved by the White House Office of Management and Budget. “So now the Army is trying to pinch pennies by closing libraries, reducing trash pick-up, closing dining facilities and reducing support for vital training activities.”
Cuts of that kind, he said, are “certain to damage morale and sends the wrong message to our troops. This is not the way to reward the courage and sacrifice of our soldiers and their families.”
Ellie
Skelton: Many signs of trouble for military
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Military forces are beginning to suffer from the strain of extended deployments to Iraq without enough money or force structure, says the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
Rep. Ike Skelton, a long-time critic of the current force structure that he says is too small, said Wednesday there are many signs of trouble. The Army, he said, is not able to pay some utility bills, some defense workers are on the unemployment lines and equipment readiness is slipping to “historic lows,” Skelton said in a speech on the House floor.
Recalling that President Bush told the U.S. military that “help was on the way” when he accepted the Republican nomination for president, Skelton said the current problems led him to ask “who, exactly, is being helped?”
The $350 billion cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is partly to blame, Skelton said, but “this Congress has continually provided the supplemental funds the administration has requested to wage the war and has even increased the defense budget by 19 percent since 2001. So I ask, how can it be that the Army is closing or curtailing family support programs and laying off employees?”
The answer, Skelton said, is that the administration has not been asking for enough money to cover the war so it is diverting money from other military programs to cover it.
“The Army knows it has a problem,” Skelton said, noting it had asked for $4.9 billion more for 2006 than was approved by the White House Office of Management and Budget. “So now the Army is trying to pinch pennies by closing libraries, reducing trash pick-up, closing dining facilities and reducing support for vital training activities.”
Cuts of that kind, he said, are “certain to damage morale and sends the wrong message to our troops. This is not the way to reward the courage and sacrifice of our soldiers and their families.”
Ellie