This really isn't risky, as the supplemental money for Iraq will be passed. The only real question is how much other pork will get stuffed in along the way. It's been obvious since mid summer that it would be necessary, it was just something that the Republicans refused to talk about before the election.

The interesting question is why the soldiers payroll money? There are any number of long term, high budget military projects they could have taken the money from. I suspect the military brass felt that returning the soldiers pay is a sure thing, money taken from anything else might not get replaced.

Jay