MARINE CORPS TIMES REPORTS: MARINES AND ARMY HURTING FOR MONEY WANT DOD TO TAKE MONEY FROM NAVY AND AIR FORCE

The cost of carrying on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not only stretched the military personnel to the breaking point, but the Army and Marines are in dire need of more money to keep "fighting" and they want the Pentagon to take money from the Navy and Air Force budget and allocate it to the Marines and Army.

DoD asks to transfer $9.7 billion to Army and Marines

By William H. McMichael - Staff writerPosted : Wednesday May 28, 2008 18:48:29 EDT
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/05/military_defensebudget_army_supplemental_052808w/

The Pentagon, still lacking more than $100 billion it has long requested to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September, asked Congress Tuesday for permission to transfer $9.7 billion to the Army and other agencies from the Navy and Air Force budgets as a stopgap measure.
If lawmakers do not take action on a new wartime supplemental spending request by June 9, the Pentagon said the Army, bearing the lion’s share of war burdens, will run out of money to pay its soldiers by June 15.
And even if the $9.7 billion reprogramming request is granted, the Pentagon said the money will fund only another few weeks of overall operations. Failure to pass the entire $108.1 billion supplemental request by mid-July, officials said, will exhaust all remaining military personnel and operations funding by late July and leave the department unable to meet both military and civilian payroll.