Senate Panel Cuts off Funds for Cheney's Office

Sweet!!!

Things are starting to heat up here in Foggy Bottom. Now we have a Senate panel that wants to cut off funds to Deadeye Dick's office until he complies with an executive order related to classified information.

Here's the full, beautiful, story.

A Senate appropriations panel chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., refused to fund $4.8 million in the vice president’s budget until Cheney’s office complies with parts of an executive order governing its handling of classified information.

At issue is a requirement that executive branch offices provide data on how much material they classify and declassify. That information is to be provided to the Information Security Oversight Office at The National Archives.

Cheney’s office, with backing from the White House, argues that the offices of the president and vice president are exempt from the order because they are not executive branch ”agencies.”

The funding cut came as the appropriations panel approved 5-4 along party lines a measure funding White House operations, the Treasury Department and many smaller agencies.

Of course Deadeye Dick doesn't give a rat's rectum about the law or his inability to expend funds within the law. He'll just go about doing whatever the hell he wants to do even if it means violating the Anti-Deficiency Act

(1) An officer or employee of the United States Government or of the District of Columbia government may not—
(A) make or authorize an expenditure or obligation exceeding an amount available in an appropriation or fund for the expenditure or obligation;
(B) involve either government in a contract or obligation for the payment of money before an appropriation is made unless authorized by law;
(C) make or authorize an expenditure or obligation of funds required to be sequestered under section 252 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985; or
(D) involve either government in a contract or obligation for the payment of money required to be sequestered under section 252 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

Given recent history we can be assured that Deadeye Dick will claim that he's not an officer or employee of the US government but what the hell.

I only wish that Senator Durbin's committee had also voted to cut off a small protruberence a little south of Dick's belt buckle. Perhaps with it gone he might grow a little humility since he'd be incapable of growing anything else.