House Dems Assembling Biggest Iraq Spending Bill
April 28, 2008Just after uploading a blog-post summarizing an economist’s recent analysis of the costs of the Iraq War (see previous post, below), I read an extremely disappointing story on the front page of today’s SF Chronicle. Below are excerpts and a link to the story, followed by my letter to the Chronicle, which they printed on May 1 (Mayday).
SF Chronicle, 28 April 2008
House Dems Assembling Biggest Iraq Spending Bill
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Washington DC — House Democratic leaders are putting together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet, a measure … expected to fund the war through the end of the Bush presidency and for nearly six months into the next president’s term.
The bill … signals that Democrats are resigned to the fact they can’t change course in Iraq in the final months of President Bush’s term. Instead, the party is pinning its hopes of ending the war on winning the White House in November.
…
The bill is expected to provide $108 billion that the White House has requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lawmakers … drafting it say it … will include a … bridge fund of $70 billion to give the new president several months of breathing room …
…
Printed in San Francisco Chronicle, May 1, 2008
Editor,
It is almost unbelievable that House Democrats are preparing to give President Bush the war funding he seeks for the remainder of his term ["House Dems Assembling Biggest Iraq Spending Bill", April 28].
In the last congressional election, the Democrats asked progressives to work to help them retake Congress. They promised they would end the Iraq war once in the majority. We walked precincts, registered voters, staffed get-out-the-vote phone banks, raised funds. The Democrats won the majority.
What have they done with that majority? Kowtowed to the Bush regime. Behaved as if they were still the minority party. Caved in to conservative members of their own party who wrongly claim that cutting off war funding would make them look “weak on security”.
Apparently, helping elect Democrats isn’t working as a strategy to end the war.
Yo, Speaker Pelosi, listen up: end this war pronto or you’ll lose our support. We won’t be fooled again.
Jeff Johnson
PeacePundit.com
