Sens.: Give Pentagon Pork Money To Troops

Outraged that the Democratic-controlled Congress has not acted on President Bush's $196 billion wartime funding request, a few fiscal conservatives want to take away lawmakers' earmarks in the defense spending bill and divert the money to the troops in Iraq. 

Republican Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona have sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggesting that he take some of the $5 billion from 2,000 earmarks in the Pentagon spending bill and use it to fund operations in Iraq.

In the recently signed defense spending bill, Democrats purposely gave the Pentagon wide latitude to shift money around so that they would have to feel the pain in some accounts if they had to shift money to Iraq.

Gates warned last week that if the Pentagon does not get at least some "bridge" funding for the war soon, he might have to start shuffling money within existing Defense accounts.
Coburn, DeMint and McCain say it's the lawmakers who request billions in earmarks - mostly home state military projects - who should feel the pain.

"We hope you will move quickly to redirect these wasteful and unnecessary projects to the worthwhile purpose of equipping our men and women in the field," the senators wrote in a letter dated Nov. 16. "If there are any legal encumbrances that prevent you from transferring wasteful earmark funding to combat operations please ask Congress for the necessary authority."

The latter suggestion, though, seems highly unlikely given that one of the biggest losers in a move to cut Pentagon earmarks would be Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.