supplemental

The $87 billion dollar supplemental is sailing though. There is an article today over at Slate by Fred Kaplan, Rumsfeld's $9 Billion Slush Fund that you should read. Kaplan has discovered $9.3 billion dollars set aside for discretionary spending.

For all the debate over President Bush's $87 billion supplemental request for military operations and economic reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq, no one seems to have noticed that the sum includes a slush fund of at least $9.3 billion, which Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld can spend pretty much as he pleases.

Last week, the congressional armed services committees—and this week the House Appropriations Committee—marked up the supplemental, excising a few hundred million that Bush had requested for new hospitals, housing, and sanitation. But the committees didn't touch a nickel of the slush fund—and there's a cravenly wink-and-nudge reason why they didn't.

Kaplan includes a link to a pdf of the supplemental request. He also breaks down how he discovered the "slush fund" and where the numbers are hidden. President Bush also has access to funds.

Finally, the president has a little slush fund, too. One section notes that he may transfer "any appropriation made available in this title," as long as it does "not exceed $200 million."