This one goes to Generation Opportunity, a coalition of right-leaning groups with ties to the Koch brothers. It’s telling young women that if they sign up for Obamacare, a man in a creepy Uncle Sam costume will jam a speculum down their vaginas. The group is about to launch a 20-college tour in which they will try to persuade young people to “opt out” of Obamacare, the success of which heavily relies on young people signing up.
With the federal fiscal year quickly coming to an end, the U.S. House and Senate are still jostling to figure out what kind of continuing resolution it will pass. A continuing resolution is a type of appropriations legislation used by Congress to fund government if a formal appropriations bill hasn’t been passed by Sept. 30.
A group of very vocal, very conservative House Republicans wants so badly to kill the Affordable Care Act, that they are willing to allow a government shutdown on Oct. 1 by forgoing a continuing resolution that would provide funding to keep government operating.
For awhile, it looked like House Speaker John Boehner wasn’t going to capitulate to his right flank and take any chance of allowing that to happen. On Wednesday, however, he announced that he’s going to allow a vote on Friday that will provide funding to keep the government open, while stripping away money to implement portions of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA.
This is what the House conservatives were demanding.
It’s a risky move because the Senate has made clear that any measure it passes will retain funding for ACA, and Obama himself said he would not sign any measure that did not include funding for ACA.
The Senate intends to pass its own continuing resolution that includes funding for ACA.
Some pundits believe that Boehner hopes that sending the stopgap measure to the Senate might be enough to placate the right wing members of his caucus. Those members can then say they’ve tried and some sort of stopgap measure will then be passed that keeps government open.
According to Rep. Don Young’s office, this is exactly what some of the Republican right wing turks in the Senate — namely Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz — have asked for.
“(T)here is a vocal group of Republicans in the Senate that are demanding we use passing the CR (continuing resolution) as a vehicle to defund Obamacare,” Young’s spokesman Mike Anderson said. “House Republicans intend to give the Senate that chance.”
Anderson then goes on to point out that the House has voted more than 40 times to defund some or all of ACA. “(F)or the first time since it was forced through Congress without a single Republican vote, the Senate will finally be forced to show the American people where they stand with regards to this awful law,” he said.
Partisan politics will likely continue to play out for the remaining days of the fiscal year. The political showdown has just started. While some political observers believe that a continuing resolution will be passed to avert a shutdown, others aren’t so sure.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Politico is reporting that U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller has been invited to Las Vegas on Sept. 28 to speak at Nevada’s Republican Party’s annual Unity Dinner. The state GOP invited Miller to keynote the banquet, which will follow their state central committee meeting.
“Nevada shares some of the same challenges as Alaska, including vast federal ownership of land within the state,” Miller campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto said, according to Politico. “An alliance with western states such as Nevada will be critical in moving our vision of greater state control forward.”
Some Nevada Republicans might hope their GOP doesn’t have too much in common with Alaska’s GOP, at least in terms of annual party conferences.
At the last annual GOP meeting in Alaska, Miller and his crowd of Tea Party and Ron Paul supporters heckled and booed Sen. Lisa Murkowski and U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, who was invited to speak at the banquet.
They were also able to take over leadership of the Alaska Republican Party by getting their members elected to party positions during the convention.
It was a heady time for them until their efforts ultimately unraveled when it was discovered that the coterie proved ineffective at raising money. Tensions ran so high that the chair fired nearly every unpaid party functionary, even the ones who were elected, before skipping town and changing the locks on the doors to the Republican Party headquarters in Anchorage.
Peter Goldberg is the new party chair. He is from Brooklyn, New York. His mother is Jewish. He is now a practicing Mormon. He was raised in orphanages across the city because his father was in prison. He is also a retired Army colonel. Word is he is running things well.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Female politicians do not send electronic photos of their nether regions to strangers on the other side of the country. If they are picking up prostitutes, which they aren’t, they’re pretty discreet about it. And they aren’t as corrupt as men, so says a new paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Politics and Gender by Rice University’s Justin Esarey and Gina Chirillo.
Or at least that’s the case in democratic countries which stigmatize corruption. There isn’t much of a difference, the authors find, between the sexes when corruption is part of a norm. The authors say that this has something to with how the different genders perceive risk.
In Alaska, we knew this. There have only been a few scandals up here, and they have all been male dominated, save one former lawmaker, Bev Masek who traded her vote for $4,000.
In any case, this provides a great case for recruiting more female candidates into business and politics. In 2013 women held 98, or only about 18 percent of seats in the U.S. Congress. Across the country, women held about 24 percent of the seats in state Legislatures.
Alaska does a little better when it comes to gender equity in our state Legislature. Out of 60 legislators in Alaska, 17 or about 27 percent are women. Out of 14 total, there are five women in Gov. Sean Parnell’s cabinet.
But our private sector isn’t doing so well, at least if the make-up of boards is any indication. There are four major publicly traded companies based in Alaska with a total of 38 board members. Of these board members only seven are women, four of whom are on the board of First National Bank and three of whom are the chairman’s daughters.
Sen. Lesil McGuire is planning a conference, scheduled in October, about the economic status of women in Alaska and what can be done to raise the status of women in the state.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
As I previously reported, Brad Keithley is making noises about running for governor. If he does so, he’d likely run as an independent, and he likely would be self-financed. He’s well-educated and cultured. He knows as much about college basketball and more about music than anyone who is running or has talked about running to date. And he’s also proving to be rather unorthodox compared to most politicians.
So far, in front of groups, on talk radio, and on his blog, he has focused on Gov. Sean Parnell’s handling of the state’s fiscal affairs, which could prove to be a major weakness for Parnell.
Under Parnell’s “fiscally conservative” administration, the budget has grown 55 percent. There are all sorts of reasons for this: declining federal funds and ballooning health care costs, to name a few. But there’s been loads of fat in Parnell’s budgets. And he’s done nothing to address what Keithley and others call a looming fiscal crisis. In fact, Parnell doesn’t even talk about it.
Inexplicably, Bill Walker let this one get away from him. Someone was bound to jump into the budget-sized opening. Too bad for Parnell that it increasingly looks like it’s Keithley who’s doing so.
That Keithley might have enough money to be self-financed, and not beholden to anybody, should be enough to make Parnell nervous. But already Keithley is proving that not being beholden also provides the flexibility to say and do what he pleases, and to break the so called “rules” of politics. This should be particularly unnerving for Parnell, who is nothing if not conventional.
Last week, for instance, Keithley posted correspondence on his blog that belittled his own candidacy. Most politicians would have tried to bury it. Keithley highlighted it by republishing the criticism in full, saying that it brought him “humor:”
Meant to tell you, I was recently at a meeting that included several Alaskan republican leaders. It was rumored that you were considering running for governor. When I heard their reactions, I was actually embarrassed for you. Of course democrat friends in JNU and on the hill hope you run, as there’s not a chance in hell you can win, but you will help push the vote in their favor. Best part? Several of those I mention above are people you told me were good friends and who you respect immensely. You are the laughing stock of that town. So gratifying to watch…
Keithley’s pitch-perfect response:
The humor? That ‘Alaskan republican leaders’ are wasting their time talking about personalities. (If you believe the writer, at least.) My recommendation? They spend their time instead talking about things that really matter, starting with ways to reduce the upcoming budget. Otherwise … they won’t be leaders for much longer.
Truth is, some Alaska Republicans, the smart ones, are talking about Keithley. In fact, they seem to be talking more about him than they are about Walker, who has been running for months. And they aren’t laughing.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Clarification: As far as I know, Keithley posted the correspondence in full. The author of the email that he published, however, says otherwise.
In 2002, those who fought most vigorously to increase alcohol taxes in Alaska said that if consumers paid more, they’d drink less.
Not so. The ADN’s Kyle Hopkins reports that since the 2002 increase passed the Legislature, “sales of whiskey, vodka and other spirits have grown 41 percent.”
Hopkins writes that the tax on beer increased from 35 cents a gallon to $1.07. The wine tax increased from 85 cents a gallon to $2.50 and the tax on hard liquor from $5.60 to $12.80 a gallon.
All that translates to about 10 cents a drink. Whoever thought that spending 10 cents more on a drink is going to curtail behavior hasn’t spent much time with those who like their wine or need their Monarch Vodka. Many economists believe that so-called sin taxes can work to change behavior, but most believe that the tax has to be large to really be felt, like taxes on cigarettes.
Perhaps most galling is that despite the promise that half the money it received from the tax would go to combating substance abuse, programs took a huge dive.
When oil prices went up, however, money began to flow freely. By 2010, the state spending was up to about $40 million on alcohol abuse and treatment. In that year, the state received $39 million in alcohol taxes.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Mining giant Anglo America, the Pebble Partnership’s weight and muscle, announced on Monday that it’s dropping out of the Pebble mine project.
What this means to the mine is unclear. But it doesn’t bode well for Pebble’s prospects. Anglo had a 50 percent interest in the project. The other 50 percent belongs to Northern Dynasty. Anglo is the parent company to the diamond giant De Beers, and the company has holdings all over the world. Northern Dynasty’s sole asset is Pebble.
Anglo says that it’s dropping its project to focus on lower risk projects, ones that are perhaps less politically charged. The EPA is in the process of deciding whether or not to block the project, which would be one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines near the source of over a third of the world’s wild salmon supply.
If the EPA chooses not to block Pebble, it will likely become one of the country’s most heated environmental fights. Anglo and De Beers have already been getting pressure from jewelers across the world to drop out of the project.
Northern Dynasty’s stock, which opened on Monday at $1.66, had dropped 34 percent by midday East Coast Time.
Northern Dynasty vows to fight on. The company’s CEO Ron Thiessen said that it has $541 million worth of expenditures, “which opens the door to a number of exciting possibilities for Northern Dynasty and its shareholders and the Pebble Project and its stakeholders.”
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Sen. Mark Begich and a Koch brothers’ funded group are in a battle over whether or not a television ad falsely characterizes Begich’s position on a carbon tax.
The American Energy Alliance, the political arm of the Institute for Energy Research, both of which are funded partly by the Koch brothers, launched an ad recently in Alaska that says that Begich is in support of a carbon tax, something that the AEA is staunchly opposed to.
Begich says he doesn’t support the tax, and now lawyers are involved.
Begich’s lawyer called on station managers to take the ads down, calling them “false and misleading.”
“For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station must immediately cease airing this advertisement,” Begich’s lawyer wrote to the station managers on Sept. 5.
According to the AEA, the station mangers reviewed the ads and declined to remove them.
Begich has said publicly that he opposes a carbon tax. He did, however, vote on a non-binding amendment that said if such a tax were passed, revenue from it would be “returned to the American people in the form of federal deficit reduction, reduced federal tax rates, cost savings or other direct benefits.”
The vote would not have created or defeated a carbon tax, Begich’s lawyer wrote.
However, the AEA says his vote was a vote for the tax. Further, Begich voted against an amendment that would have required a vote of three fifths of the Senate to approve a carbon tax.
“That you felt the need to attempt to suppress the advertisements with threats and intimidation from your lawyers rather than publicly disclaim your past support for a carbon tax is telling,” said President of AEA Tom Pyle in a scathing press release.
“The American Energy Alliance would welcome a public apology to your constituents for your earlier votes in support of carbon taxes and your pledge that going forward your voting record will match your rhetoric on this vitally important issue for Alaska’s economic well-being,” Pyle wrote.
There’s more than a year to go before the 2014 election. Expect much more of this in the future.
Below is the AEA press release in full:
WASHINGTON — The American Energy Alliance responded today to a series of letters from a Washington D.C. law firm representing Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) who complains that a current advertisement sponsored by AEA “mischaracterizes” the senator’s past support for carbon tax legislation and threatens legal action for the continued airing of the ads. On Sept. 5, 2013, attorneys with Perkins Coie, LLP, notified station managers in Alaska that continued airing of AEA’s ad, entitled “Games,” could be cause for “loss of [the] station’s license.” Attorneys for the American Energy Alliance responded to the charges, and the Alaska stations were satisfied that the AEA advertisement did not run afoul of federal laws that prohibit “false, misleading or deceptive advertising.” All Alaska stations continue to run the AEA ad.
In his response letter, AEA President Thomas Pyle addressed two primary claims made by Senator Begich’s attorneys and campaign staff, namely that Begich has not supported a carbon tax and that AEA represents outside interests interfering in the state.
“That you felt the need to attempt to suppress the advertisements with threats and intimidation from your lawyers rather than publicly disclaim your past support for a carbon tax is telling,” Pyle wrote. “The American Energy Alliance will continue our current advertising initiative to inform Alaskans . . . of the impacts of harmful energy policies emanating from Washington and the role you play in shaping them. Moreover, we will seek additional opportunities in the future to do the same.”
Pyle took issue with Begich’s characterization of AEA as an “outsider group,” noting the senator’s willingness to host other “outsiders” who are opposed to economic development in Alaska — so long as those “outsiders” were raising money for the Begich re-election effort.
“Your campaign hosted a recent fundraiser in Fairbanks, charging guests as much as $120 per person to meet Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), [who was there] to help raise money for the Alaska Democratic Party and Alaska’s junior senator . . . Your willingness to invite an ‘outsider’ like Senator Cantwell to help swell your campaign coffers, all the while knowing of her well-documented history of championing legislative efforts to limit the development of Alaska’s vast natural resources and drive up the cost of energy for your constituents, exposes the height of hypocrisy that corrodes our system of representative democracy and always, eventually returns to haunt public officials.”
Pyle pressed further: “You certainly know your record, Senator. And you certainly know that elected officials are held to account more for their recorded votes than for their campaign rhetoric or the threatening missives and petty litigious needles threaded by their Washington-based lawyers. In any event, your record stands, and Alaskans are better informed citizens when organizations like the American Energy Alliance remind them of it.”
Pyle’s letter concludes: “The American Energy Alliance would welcome a public apology to your constituents for your earlier votes in support of carbon taxes and your pledge that going forward your voting record will match your rhetoric on this vitally important issue for Alaska’s economic well-being. Be assured that we will not be intimidated into backing away from our mission to foster an informed electorate of the voting records of their elected officials and call for engaged democratic participation in the American political tradition.”
To read Pyle’s full letter to Begich, click here.
To read the threatening letter from Begich lawyers to Alaska TV stations, click here.
To read the response letter from AEA attorneys, click here.
To view the AEA carbon tax ad currently running in Alaska, click here.
To read the fact sheet supporting the AEA ad, click here.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
As I wrote last night that he would do, Gov. Sean Parnell announced on Thursday morning that Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan submitted his resignation letter. Although he doesn’t say so in his letter, Sullivan is resigning effective Sept. 24 to run for the U.S. Senate Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Democrat Mark Begich.
“As I explore new opportunities and challenges in the next phase of my life, I intend to seek ways to continue to serve my fellow Alaskans,” Sullivan wrote.
“As attorney general, Dan played a major role in the Choose Respect initiative and fought hard against federal overreach,” Parnell said in his announcement. “During his tenure as commissioner, Dan led the state’s efforts in resource development and permitting reform, and worked to resolve Pt. Thomson litigation – setting the stage for a natural gas pipeline.”
In his resignation letter Sullivan is more specific about his successes as both Alaska’s AG and as DNR commissioner:
Sullivan will be running in the primary against current Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and former Senate candidate Joe Miller. Treadwell is kicking off his campaign today.
Both Sullivan and Treadwell are considered more “establishment” candidates, to the extent there is an “establishment” in Alaska. Miller is, well, Miller.
Because the party makeup of the U.S. Senate might very well rest on this race, people who are watching are nervous that Treadwell and Sullivan will pave the way for Miller to claim victory in a Republican primary, as he did when he ran against U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Between Treadwell and Sullivan, Karl Rove, for one, has deemed Sullivan to be the more winnable and is prepared to put money through at least one super PAC that he spearheaded to help ward off Tea Party candidates such as Miller.
Sullivan looks good on paper. He’s got a Harvard undergraduate degree and a law degree from Georgetown. He’s a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. He’s been in the United States Marine Corps since 1993, and just got back from reservist duty where he was on a counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan. He’s married to Julie Fate, whose mother is a respected Native Alaska leader and whose father is a former Fairbanks lawmaker.
However, unlike Treadwell, Sullivan has never run for office. Treadwell can fight tough and dirty if need be.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
If you want a reminder that Alaska’s politicians aren’t that bad, read this lead to a Tampa Bay Times story:
“There is no graver responsibility and act of state government than an execution. In Florida this week, a campaign fundraiser takes precedence. Attorney General Pam Bondi persuaded Gov. Rick Scott to postpone an execution scheduled for tonight because it conflicted with her re-election kick-off reception.”
Marshall Lee Gore was supposed to be executed on Tuesday for murdering 30-year-old Robyn Novick and 19-year-old Susan Roark in 1988. His execution date is now set for Oct. 1.
Bondi and Scott are Republicans. Bondi has admitted that she requested the rescheduling because of her fundraiser and has apologized. Scott has not.
My favorite quote:
“Wherever one stands on the death penalty, there isn’t anyone in America that believes an execution should be postponed for political fundraising,” said David Donnelly, executive director of Public Campaign Action Fund. “That Pam Bondi requested a delay in this execution shows how the nonstop chase for campaign cash has hollowed out the morality of our political system. Her moral compass is broken.”
Read the full story here.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that will, among other things, authorize potential builders of a natural gas bullet line to meander through seven miles of Denali National Park. The bill passed the Senate, where it was first introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski in 2009 at the request of ENSTAR Natural Gas Company, reintroduced with Sen. Mark Begich in 2011, and is now in front of the president, who is expected to sign it.
Let me repeat this: Congress actually passed a bill that will allow a pipeline to go through seven miles of Denali National Park, one of the largest, most remote and protected national parks in the country.
This is not a small development. For one, because cutting through the park could save millions of dollars in construction costs and eliminate a whole heap of headaches, it brings the idea of the bullet line closer to reality. But secondly, and most importantly, the bill required cooperation between energy companies, environmentalists, Republicans and Democrats. The route through the park was arguably a more environmentally responsible route, and the environmentalists recognized this and ultimately supported it.
The media, by and large, missed the story. The country was Syria crazed, for one. Secondly, it’s not all that exciting to report a story where the plot line is that people acted rationally and that Congress, the environmental community, and business functioned like the nation wants them to function.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Below is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, from which I get nearly daily press releases. I get nothing, however, from Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services, which appears to have abdicated their role in educating Alaskans who need to sign up for the exchanges.
Perhaps this silence from HSS is a directive from Gov. Sean Parnell, who apparently would rather see the law fail than to have his constituents be able to receive insurance that they can actually afford. He and his advisors, after all, have theirs, paid for by the oil companies and the citizens of Alaska.
4 things for women to know:
• You won’t be charged more for health insurance just because you’re a woman.
• You can’t be denied coverage or charged more due to pre-existing conditions, like cancer or being pregnant.
• You can choose from any primary care provider, OB-GYN, or pediatrician in your health plan’s network without a referral.
• You’ll get free preventive care like mammograms, well-woman visits, contraception, and more.
Open enrollment begins on October 1, 2013. Coverage starts as soon as January 1, 2014. I’ll have more as I get it on how and where to sign up for the exchanges.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, was all set to storm Congress this week to push for Congress to vote to intervene in Syria. The most powerful pro-Israel group in the country, perhaps the most powerful lobbying group ever, was going to deploy 250 activists and lobbyists to strong arm and to threaten, as only AIPAC can do.
It’s unclear what they will do now. Since Sunday, the situation has changed drastically. Syria has said that it’s prepared to cooperate with the Russians to inspect its chemical arsenal and to sign a chemical weapons ban. And President Obama has called on Congress to delay a vote to authorizing force while diplomacy is pursued.
This is welcome news to most who believe that the end is more important than the means. But U.S. Sen. Mark Begich is likely breathing a huge sigh of relief. AIPAC has deep pockets and huge influence and can make or break a candidate. Begich has paid notable deference to Israel in his speeches on the issue, but AIPAC judges support by votes, not words, and had Begich voted against military authorization, he wouldn’t be in good stead with AIPAC.
It’s unclear how much influence the group has on this issue. It looked like it was going to lose in Congress no matter what, but it wasn’t going to go down easy and politicians were going to pay, if nothing else by withholding campaign money. Had Begich voted against authorizing force, which he appeared prone to do, he likely would have been one of them.
AIPAC has lost in the past, and it’s not been pretty. In 1991, against a heavy lobbying effort by AIPAC, President George H.W. Bush cut off loan guarantees to Israel until it froze West Bank settlement construction. A year later Bush lost to Clinton as did many of his supporters in Congress.
More significant for Begich was what happened in 1981, when Sen. Mike Gravel voted with President Ronald Reagan to sell advanced AWACS aircraft to Saudi Arabia, against AIPAC’s wishes. Reagan won then, but learned his lesson by watching members of Congress who voted for the sale lose election after election. One of those members was Sen. Mike Gravel, who, until Begich, was Alaska’s last Democratic senator.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
I know I’ve been Syria-obsessed the last few days. But everything else I’m considering writing about pales in comparison to dropping bombs on a chaotic Middle-Eastern country with an maniacal leader who has chemical and biological weapons and who hasn’t taken off the table the threat of using them against our soldiers in retaliation.
Congress has been expected to take up the issue of a resolution authorizing strikes against Syria this week. As of this writing, whether or not they do so is still up in the air, which is sounding more and more like a good thing.
It was all set to go until Sunday, when, in what was described as a “gaffe,” Secretary of State John Kerry said offhandedly that the U.S. might not strike if Syria agrees to surrender control of its chemical weapons. On Tuesday, pundits are increasingly questioning whether the” gaffe” was wrapped in brilliant diplomacy because it allowed Russia, which has been against the strikes and has veto power at the U.N. Security Council, to find an opening.
As a result, members of the U.N. Security Council are working on a resolution that would authorize the international community, lead by Russia, to take control of the Syrian chemical weapons stockpile.
On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of eight senators announced that they also plan a new resolution. This one would authorize an attack on Syria, but only after the introduction of that U.N. resolution, which would set a deadline for the Assad government to hand over its chemical stockpile. If Assad fails to do so, then the U.S. could use military force.
That’s the latest. It’s constantly evolving however and President Obama is scheduled to address the nation on the situation this evening. But the latest doesn’t look so bad. Here’s my favorite blogger Andrew Sullivan’s take:
It is, if it transpires, a huge victory for the US. Yes, it means we have to relinquish ownership of all this and let Russia take the credit – and all the blowback domestically and internationally that might entail. Expect a whole slew of “Munich” stories; a chorus singing the A-word (appeasement); and the usual derision of Obama from the loony right. The great thing about this president is that he doesn’t care how the short-term optics look or how the news cycle plays as long as the result is one he wants. The process toward that goal is inherently messy, but what matters is the result.
Up next: Why U.S. Sen. Mark Begich is breathing a sigh of relief.
This just in from the AP: “Syrian foreign minister says Syria will declare its chemical weapons arsenal, sign chemical weapons convention.”
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich held a telephonic town hall on Thursday night, where he listened and answered questions about whether or not the country should strike Syria. Many of the questions asked were about the costs of such military strikes. Begich said that he has yet to get a full accounting of those costs.
Congress is expected to vote next week on a resolution to authorize military action in Syria. Begich said that in order to vote for the resolution, among other things, he would need a to know more about the costs, and that they couldn’t come from money already allocated to existing programs.
The country, as well as members of Congress, are increasingly opposing such action, in part because of the money involved. Below is a taste of what we have spent recently in conflicts in the Middle East, and some of the estimates of what we would spend if we were to go to Syria:
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
