Bill, how is it possible for Congress to appropriate hundreds of billions of dollars to projects that neither the Pentagon nor the President support? Where do budget proposals originate? I was under the impression that the Pentagon requested money and Congress approved or disapproved. When did the switcheroo occur? Bob Parmelee

--
Edited by parmsplace at 07/31/2009 10:13 PM PDT

On a recent show the subject of corruption in the Bush administration came up and Bill seemed at a loss for words. I wonder about the fact that an oil company gets awarded building contracts in the billions when giant overseas contractors aren't even allowed to bid. I also wonder about Bill Moyer's commentary about a missing 200 billion of 400 billion paid to Halliburton which appears to have disappeared. I don't mean disappeared as in failed to show up in Halliburton's account. I mean disappeared as in buildings billed and paid for can't seem to be found, and services double and triple billed have never been reimbursed or credits issued for those overcharges. Is there any truth to these allegations? I have no way of finding out but perhaps HBO has the resources to do so.