Hey, let's party!

From today's New York Times:

In Bill’s Fine Print, Millions to Celebrate Victory
By Thom Shanker

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — Even as the Bush administration urges Americans to stay the course in Iraq, Republicans in Congress have put down a quiet marker in the apparent hope that V-I Day might be only months away.

Tucked away in fine print in the military spending bill for this past year was a lump sum of $20 million to pay for a celebration in the nation’s capital “for commemoration of success” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not surprisingly, the money was not spent.

Now Congressional Republicans are saying, in effect, maybe next year. A paragraph written into spending legislation and approved by the Senate and House allows the $20 million to be rolled over into 2007....

Here's the rest, if you can stomach it.

How many hungry children do you suppose that $20 million might feed? How much health care to needy families might it provide? How much good, do you suppose, might some underfunded school district be able to do with that much money?

Or perhaps even more on point -- how much body armor will $20 million buy? How many unarmored Humvees could've been made safer? How many veterans could have had their benefits go unreduced? How many military families that are now struggling could use that dough?

This is a shameless bunch of thugs, people. They care only about perpetuating power and patting themselves on the back.