Funding of 1 trillion dollars for the war
On Thursday, the Senate rejected more than 20 billion dollars for domestic spending, but approved 60 billion dollars for funding President Barack Obama‘s troop surge in Afghanistan.
The Senate approved funds only for the war, the foreign aid, the medical care for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange and the disaster aid. The projects rejected were grants to school districts to avoid teachers being fired, Pell Grants destined for low income college students, summer jobs program and security along the United States-Mexico border. The Senate measure is likely to be accepted by the Democrats in spite of the Liberals’ opposition to the war in Afghanistan, which they consider useless and a lost cause. Robert Gates, the Defense Secretary, says that unless the measure is approved and applied before Congress leaves for its August recess, many Pentagon employees might be laid off.
The Senate measure approved about 30 billion dollars for Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan, more than 5 billion dollars for disaster aid, funding for Haitian earthquake relief and for the Tennessee and Rhode Island floods. The total of the war funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will reach 1 trillion dollars. The measure contains 13 billion dollars for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange, 1.1 billion dollars for mine-resistant vehicles, 657 million dollars for military bases in Afghanistan and 6.2 billion dollars in foreign aid for Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Haiti.
