The Cost Of Bush's Border Politics

President Bush supports the troops the base...

UPI: Border mission drains war 'reset' fund

When the Senate took $1.9 billion out of the war supplemental to fund border security last month, $1.6 billion came out of funds to replace equipment destroyed or worn out from four years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The money was diverted at the behest of the White House in a last-minute bid to address growing political unrest about illegal immigration. The Office of Management and Budget championed the change without input from the Army or the Marine Corps whose budgets were sliced, a Pentagon budget official told United Press International last week...

...Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul McHale said in May the Defense Department will be completely reimbursed for the costs of the border deployment, about $756 million.

It will be reimbursed, but with money taken directly out of the Marine Corps` and Army`s pocket -- $500 million and $1.1 billion respectively -- that was intended to replace trucks, jammers and radios...

Sorry soldiers, you can have new armor next year, the GOP has an election to win.

And since we are told that much of this beefed-up border presence is about the security of our border in dangerous times, do you think the news of apprehended terrorists in Canada will bring conservative demands to build a wall on our northern border as well? Because, after all, this has nothing to do with xenophobic, anti-Mexican sentiment, right? Of course not. Nope. No sir.

[PS- Speaking of this immigration debate, look who the right-wing's fervor is bringing out into the open...]