Does the war bill shortchange the war?

In an unusual role reversal, most Congressional Republicans recently voted against a war funding bill. Some said they opposed the bill because it had so much money for the International Monetary Fund, a coalition of 185 countries that tries to foster global economic growth.

Among the Republicans sounding off was Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, who wrote this on his party’s blog:

 

“We’re getting an alleged war spending bill that actually spends more money on the International Monetary Fund than on the war,” he wrote. “We have the ability to bounce back out of this recession, but we can’t afford to pay for a global bailout – we have more than enough bailouts going on in our own country, thank you very much.”

We examined Westmoreland’s claim and found he was

exaggerating the cost

.