“The Pentagon Won’t Be Holding a Bake Sale Any Time Soon”

Last night, Rep. Alan Grayson was invited onto “All In With Chris Hayes” on MSNBC to give his perspective on Congressional approval of military action against ISIS, and the military’s request for more war funding. The host explained that Republicans were attacking the President for not calling Congress back in session to debate a declaration of war against ISIS, when only GOP Speaker Boehner can call the House back in session, to “do its job.” In short, the Democrats are rightly claiming that the Republicans need to call the House back in session, while the Republicans are wrongly claiming that it’s the President’s job to do so. Here’s what went down:

Guest Host Ari Melber: At this point, much of the GOP leadership says if they were President, they’d make themselves actually do their jobs. Joining me now is Congressman Alan Grayson. Let’s start right there, Congressman. What do you make of what I think is bizarre, even in our gridlock-bizarre politics, the claim [that] if the Republicans [were] in the White House, they would get this Congress not to act the way it has under Republican leadership?

Congressman Alan Grayson: Well, if Republicans were in the White House, we’d probably be engaged in eight or twelve wars right now. But we’re talking about war and peace, not “After you, Alfonse. No, after you, Gaston.” I don’t think that’s the way these decisions should be made.

Ari: And so what should happen?

Alan: What should happen is that Congress should be making the difficult decision that actually confronts America. The President is the Commander-in-Chief, but it’s up to Congress to declare war. Secretary Kerry says that we’re already at war and, therefore, this is something that the Congress should undertake.

Ari: And when you look at what we showed from across the pond, what did you think of the debate that they had [in the British Parliament]? Because one thing that was clear even in the short excerpt we showed was a real reckoning with the downsides here. And it seems that is in contrast, that vote that you guys did hold on the Syrian rebel piece was sort of a distraction, because we all know that this is much bigger than 5,000 rebel trainees.

Alan: Well, that debate ended up drawing interesting lines. First of all, the British Parliament voted in favor of air attacks, but not ground troops, and it drew a clear distinction in that regard. Secondly, Parliament voted in favor of attacks only in Iraq, not in Syria — another interesting distinction that has so far eluded our government. And I think that when you debate this way, then you actually end up flushing out the real issues. But I don’t expect that to happen in Congress. Look how many [Members of Parliament] attended that debate in British Parliament. Look at how many were actually there. Compare that with the six hours of debate we had a week ago in the House of Representatives, on the President’s request for half a billion dollars to train the so-called “moderate Syrian rebels.” Nobody was in the room. Nobody was in the room. At this point, we’re paying as much attention to each other in this Congress as Roman Senators did to Nero’s horse. [Actually, it was Caligula, Nero’s uncle, who appointed his horse to the Roman Senate. – Ed.]

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Ari: On that [appropriations request], you mention the half-billion, and you have, just out today, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and General Martin Dempsey saying they need more money. Take a listen to that.

—Begin video clip of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and General Martin Dempsey—

Secretary Hagel: Well, as you know, we are generally spending roughly, since this effort started, $7 million to $10 million a day. That is being funded out of OCO, overseas contingency operations, and we are going to require additional funding from Congress as we go forward.

General Dempsey: So if you’re asking me do I assess right now, as we go into the fall review for ‘16, that we’re going to have budget problems? Yes.

—End video clip of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and General Martin Dempsey—

Ari: What I think [is going on there] is that everyone remembers a little something called “the sequester,” which was largely a product of the Tea Party’s hostage-taking. And part of what it does, as you know, is automatically slow defense spending. How do you square that with the Pentagon now saying that they need all of this extra money?

Alan: Oh, I think they can drop a few bombs for only $500 billion a year [that the Pentagon already gets]. I don’t think they’re going to have to run a bake sale any time soon. But what about the indirect costs? Why aren’t we talking about that? The price of oil went up $3 a barrel this week. That means that drivers all across the United States and, in fact, all over the world, are paying 10 cents-a-gallon more this week than they did last week. That’s costing us around $20 million a day. Why is there no discussion of that?

Ari: I hear you. And the last thing I wanted to ask you, Congressman, was, in the lame duck session, do you see an explicit vote on any authorization here?

Alan: No, I don’t, but just to finish what I was saying a moment ago. Those attacks on those refineries in Syria, in the ISIS-held territory, led directly to that increase in oil prices. Why isn’t anybody thinking that through? [And] no, we’re probably not going to address [war authorization] in the lame duck session. We’re probably not going to address this year. I think what’s going to happen is the futility of this idea that we can defeat ISIS [with] air attacks alone is going to become more and more apparent to people over time. And this war, like the war in Iraq for so many years, will just fade from the news, and be largely forgotten.

Ari: You might be right. We can [only] hope that you’re wrong. Congressman Grayson, thanks for spending time with us tonight.

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