Saturday - November 10, 2007

Despite Positive News from Iraq, the Democrats Still Embrace Defeat with Latest Spending Bill

Despite evidence that the surge is working in Iraq (see Gateway Pundits roundup of good news), Pelosi and the Democratic leadership in the House is once again trying to tie withdraw and funding together in a bill that the President will have to veto.

Considering that General Petraeus's predictions are coming true in Iraq, as violence is falling and province after province are being turned over to the Iraqis, the Democrats still want to scuttle our mission. It is true. What is good for America is bad for the Democrats. And this spending bill put forth by the Democrats is proof positive that they are willing to harm American interests to further their leftist political cause.

Here is the story of how the House Democrats are at odds with American victory in Iraq:

Congressional Democrats renewed their challenge to President George W. Bush's Iraq war policy on Thursday, offering $50 billion in interim spending for combat operations coupled to a goal of pulling out most troops within a year.

The plan, which is to be considered in the House and the Senate next week, came after a lull in the political conflict over the war. It sought to balance a Democratic desire to keep money flowing to sustain troops overseas with a demand for conditions on the administration's use of those funds.

"I believe that this legislation gives voice to the concerns of the American people and, at the same time, strives to meet the needs of our troops," said the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California.

The Democratic plan is certain to be opposed in the House by many Republicans as well as some strongly antiwar Democrats who want tougher restrictions on the president. In the Senate, where past Democratic efforts to impose a timetable for withdrawals have been stymied by Republican opposition, the proposal is likely to run into a filibuster. But Democrats said such a fight would leave Republicans responsible for slowing the money.

Republicans immediately criticized the proposal, saying that conditions in Iraq have improved in recent months, after the president's troop build-up, and that the Democratic proposal would send the wrong message to fighting personnel.

"As long as we're continuing to have success, as long as our soldiers are continuing to move out of harm's way and have Iraqis more out front, I think that the Congress of the United States will not put these kind of handcuffs on our generals or on our troops," said Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader. Some Democrats had initially been inclined to sit on the president's nearly $200 billion request for combat operations until the beginning of 2008. But Representative John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who is a party leader on military issues, and others have argued that it is more responsible to try to provide some of the money now.

If the $50 billion measure stalls, the Pentagon might have to shift money from nonwar accounts to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into early next year.

At a private meeting with House Democrats where she presented the plan, Pelosi told lawmakers that if the $50 billion was rejected, Democrats would not move forward with any other Iraq money this year. Someone who was there, speaking anonymously because party meetings are supposed to be confidential, quoted Pelosi as saying: "If you don't want that, Mr. President, you ain't getting nothing." Read more....

Author: The Machiavellian
Technorati Tags: Pelosi Democrats Defeat
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