Reid opens new war front
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that he was backing legislation to cut off almost all money for the war in Iraq by next March, further escalating the Democratic confrontation with President Bush over the 4-year-old conflict.
The move comes after the Senate and House narrowly passed emergency war spending bills last month that set timelines for withdrawing U.S. troops. Neither measure proposed to cut funding for the war.
Reid, who will co-sponsor the bill with outspoken war critic Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), has never backed legislation that would use congressional control of the budget to stop paying for the war.
He almost certainly will have a difficult time rounding up a majority of votes for a bill that could leave Democrats open to charges of abandoning the troops.
But it means that Reid, who has endorsed increasingly bold steps to end the war, will be able to steer the Senate into another debate that highlights Republican support for the president's unpopular war.
President Bush, calling Democratic congressional leaders "irresponsible'' for debating a war-spending bill containing timelines for withdrawal from Iraq that he is certain to veto, suggested today that they should stop their "political dance'' and "get down to business'' in the funding of frontline troops.
If the standoff over a $100-billion-plus supplemental budget for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan goes into May, the president said, the Army will have to consider extending the deployments of soldiers already at war while training of new forces and repair of military equipment is jeopardized by a lack of funding.
Counting the 57th day since he delivered his bid for additional war-spending to Congress, the president said during an impromptu Rose Garden press conference that congressional leaders should rush their bill to his desk so that he can promptly veto it and get on with a new spending bill.
"In a time of war, it's irresponsible for the Democrat leadership in... Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds,'' Bush said.
Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, released the following statement today after comments made by President Bush at the White House:
The President today asked the American people to trust him as he continues to follow the same failed strategy that has drawn our troops further into an intractable civil war. The President's policies have failed and his escalation endangers our troops and hurts our national security. Neither our troops nor the American people can afford this strategy any longer.
Democrats will send President Bush a bill that gives our troops the resources they need and a strategy in Iraq worthy of their sacrifices. If the President vetoes this bill he will have delayed funding for troops and kept in place his strategy for failure.
During the reign of the Do-Nothing 109th Congress, Bush submitted two major supplemental spending requests. Each request experienced a delay far more than 57 days with hardly a peep of anger from the Commander-In-Chief. Details below:
February 14, 2005: Bush submits $82 billion supplemental bill
May 11, 2005: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 86 daysFebruary 16, 2006: Bush submits $72 billion supplemental bill
June 15, 2006: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 119 daysAfter the 119 day delay, Bush did not say an “irresponsible” Congress had “undercut the troops” or that military families had “paid the price of failure.” Instead, Bush told the conservative-led Congress, “I applaud those Members of Congress who came together in a fiscally responsible way to provide much-needed funds for the War on Terror.”