Buck McKeon Led Effort To Fund Grenades Over Grandmas

Representative Buck McKeon, chair of the House Armed Services Committee and self-appointed Warmonger in Chief has been engaging in a very public battle with the Pentagon. Why? Because the Pentagon says it doesn’t need the loads of pet projects McKeon submitted in the National Defense Authorization Act. The 2013 NDAA calls for $8 billion more in spending that the Pentagon requested for things like a missile defense system on Long Island that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey called unneeded and duplicative. The HASC prevents the retirement of aging ships and aircraft that the Pentagon says no longer meet strategic requirements. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta claimed that members where trying to restore their favorite programs without regard to Pentagon strategy.

This is in addition to the GOP plan to avoid defense sequestration which passed the House last week attempting to spare the defense budget the $500 billion cut over 10 year as required by the Budget Control Act of 2011, which McKeon voted for but must have had his fingers crossed. McKeon argued that House Republicans “were careful to identify other non-defense budget sources to accommodate the needed” defense increases. The Congressional Budget Office found that the GOP proposal would actually increase the budget deficit next year by $24 billion.

What are those non-defense sources to be cut? Mostly social programs like meals on wheels for the elderly, school lunches for 280,000 children, food stamps for 2 million people, and child day care. Additionally, Federal workers would have to contribute an extra 5% of their pay to their pension plans.

Dr. Lee Rogers was in Washington last week meeting with Members of Congress and gaining momentum for his campaign to replace McKeon in California’s 25 th District. We asked him what he thought of the 2013 defense budget.

“McKeon’s 2013 NDAA is irresponsible. When we have $15 trillion in debt and running trillion dollar deficits, McKeon ignores any sense of fiscal responsibility. While in the House Office Building, I walked by the room where McKeon was inside chairing a committee session to rob seniors and the poor to overfund defense beyond what the Pentagon requested. Additionally, McKeon was breaking his promise to keep the defense appropriations bills clean and free of social issue legislation when he amended it to limit the religious freedom of military chaplains. A provision on the NDAA prohibits same-sex marriages by military chaplains whose religious orders allow them to perform such ceremonies.”

As I mentioned yesterday, I attended the “All American Barbeque” [sic] for McKeon and Allen West in Santa Clarita on May 12. The Signal, the district’s largest newspaper reported that there were about 3 dozen protesters there across the ideological spectrum. A Libertarian group protested the indefinite detention clause in the 2012 NDAA. The 2013 NDAA further cements the ability of the government to detain American citizens without due process.

The group points to an explanation in The New American:

“Section 1033 of the mark-up version passed by the committee is offered as the codification of that protection. Here is the current text of that updated provision:

This section would state that nothing in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40) or the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112-81) shall be construed to deny the availability of the writ of habeas corpus in a court ordained or established by or under Article III of the Constitution for any person who is detained in the United States pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40).

The double-speak contained in that paragraph is impressive even for a Capitol Hill lawyer.

Read it very closely: The new bill does nothing to prevent the indefinite detention of Americans under the 2013 NDAA; furthermore, it only reiterates that habeas corpus is a right in courts established under Article III of the Constitution. That such a right exists in the courts of the United States has never been the issue. The concern of millions of Americans from every band in the political spectrum is that Americans detained as “belligerents” under the terms of the NDAA will not be tried in Article III courts, but will be subject to military tribunals such as the one currently considering the case of the so-called “Gitmo Five.” There is not a single syllable of the 2013 NDAA that passed out of the House Armed Service Committee on Thursday that will guarantee Americans will be tried in a constitutional court and not a military commission.”

McKeon is doing Rogers’ job for him. He’s building the coalition of voters who will eventually kick him out of office. We know that in addition to the district Democrats, Rogers has solidified the Libertarian votes and is quickly adding Republicans to his list of supporters. McKeon stopped representing his district long ago and is now a shill for the military-industrial-complex. Before becoming chair of the HASC, he voted in agreement with the defense industries 25% of the time. In 2011, his defense-related campaign contributions increased more than 400% and McKeon voted in agreement with the industries 100% of the time. That’s a quick lesson in how to buy a congressman.

Blue America is excited about endorsed candidate Lee Rogers and we’ve never seen a congressional district anywhere turn so thoroughly against a longtime incumbent as CA-25 has against Buck McKeon. Even The Signal refused to endorse McKeon in the primary, but they gave him this “endorsement” in 2006 and now after less than favorable redistricting for him and the coalition of bipartisan anti-McKeon voters, Rogers is looking like he could snag an eventual endorsement and the election. Let’s help Lee keep the heat on Buck McKeon by helping his campaign here. This would be a major coup for progressives to pull the chair out from underneath HASC war profiteer Buck McKeon. The DCCC can thank us later.