Senate Passes Big Military Bill Wednesday

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

By LAURIE KELLMAN – 11 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a massive defense bill Wednesday that includes a pay raise for military personnel, despite Republican objections to billions of dollars in special projects lawmakers had added.

Seven weeks from Election Day, blocking the measure in wartime was not a political risk many senators were willing to take. The measure passed 88-8 after negotiations on amendments failed at midday.

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Many more switched from opponents to supporters on the final vote. Of the eight who voted no, only five were Republicans: Sens. Wayne Allard of Colorado, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, David Vitter of Louisiana and Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Also voting no were Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, as well as Bernard Sanders, an Independent from Vermont.

The measure would permit $612.5 billion in spending for national defense programs in 2009, including $70 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also includes a 3.9 percent pay increase for military personnel, half a percentage point more than President Bush requested. A separate bill will have to be passed to actually appropriate the money.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jOF0B8GYgrBqrCPiUj0wsQcMkvhQD938P71G0

[KakistocracyHater]

1. the w@r on T3rr0r-till the money runs out

that's really what this is, claim someplace thousands of miles away is really important & sink trillions of dollars & Euros into it with no oversight allowed-the Country Club Class is bankrupting democracies all over tthe planet simultaneously & counting on the scale being too big for most people to see it. U.K. also has a housing bubble going on, how's that working out for them?