Fill 'er Up!

The AP tells us:

A Pentagon audit found [Vice President Dick] Cheney's former company may have overcharged the Army by $1.09 per gallon for nearly 57 million gallons of gasoline delivered to citizens in Iraq, senior defense officials say.

But don't worry, President Bush said, "if there's an overcharge, like we think there is, we expect that money be repaid." Why does this statement not comfort me? Oh yeah, because he also expected the Valerie Plame leaker(s) to be found. Too bad back in November the GOP-dominated Congress eliminated a provision in the Iraq spending bill that would've punished war profiteering:

The final version of the $87 billion spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan is missing provisions the Senate had passed to penalize war profiteers who defraud American taxpayers. House negotiators on the package refused to accept the Senate provisions.
...
Leahy, Feinstein and Durbin will re-introduce the legislation again as a separate bill and will work to win its passage. But because criminal penalties cannot be made retroactive, the absence of penalties in this supplemental appropriations bill will hamper efforts to crack down on war profiteering that involves funds from this bill.

Okay, to be fair:

Auditors found potential overcharges of up to $61 million for gasoline that a Halliburton subsidiary delivered as part of its no-bid contract to help rebuild Iraq's oil industry.

But the company apparently didn't profit from the discrepancy, according to officials who briefed reporters Thursday on condition of anonymity. The problem, the officials said, was that Halliburton may have paid a Kuwaiti subcontractor too much for the gasoline in the first place.

So it's not necessarily profiteering, just stupidity. Ah, the joys of privatization, part of the BushCo corporatist agenda brought to you by Halliburton.

ntodd  ¶ 5:19 PM