Quote of the day: frustrations on war spending
Usually, attempts by fiscally conservative lawmakers to force Congress to actually pay for "emergency" funding never go anywhere. But on Thursday, this amendment put forth by Sens. Tom Coburn and John McCain, which would reduce federal spending and sell federal property to pay for the just-passed $60 billion war supplemental bill, went down by a ...
Usually, attempts by fiscally conservative lawmakers to force Congress to actually pay for "emergency" funding never go anywhere. But on Thursday, this amendment put forth by Sens. Tom Coburn and John McCain, which would reduce federal spending and sell federal property to pay for the just-passed $60 billion war supplemental bill, went down by a close 47-50 vote.
Usually, attempts by fiscally conservative lawmakers to force Congress to actually pay for "emergency" funding never go anywhere. But on Thursday, this amendment put forth by Sens. Tom Coburn and John McCain, which would reduce federal spending and sell federal property to pay for the just-passed $60 billion war supplemental bill, went down by a close 47-50 vote.
Eight democrats crossed the aisle to vote for the measure, but two Republicans didn’t sign on. If they had (and the eight Dems held), the amendment could have actually passed. Who were they? Ohio Sen. George Voinovich, who voted against the amendment, and Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who was out recovering from hernia surgery.
As one GOP Senate aid put it, "We were a hernia and an appropriator away from almost paying for the war."
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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