Senators from both parties are using the war funding bill as a crutch to limp through shameless spending bills which may only serve to screw the American soldier who needs funding to keep their supplies. Of course, why do these politicians care, it is only THEIR freedom these men and women are laying it all on the line for, and what does that matter when there are millions to be made from lobbyists and the like?
WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite numerous veto threats, senators in both parties have loaded up President Bush's war funding bill with a grab bag of domestic programs, including work permits for immigrant farm labor and heating subsidies for the poor.
The Senate was scheduled to begin debate on the measure Tuesday, just days after a key panel added more about $28 billion to Bush's budget request for this year and next, with almost $50 billion more for a big expansion of veterans benefits under the GI Bill over 2010-2018.
The new GI Bill and Democratic priorities like extending unemployment benefits are simply the big-ticket add-ons, both of which have drawn veto threats. There's also $50 million to track down child predators, $400 million to help rural schools and $350 million fight western wildfires, just for starters.
Senators are acting as if the war funding bill coming to the floor Tuesday is the last train leaving the station, and, as a result, have added billions of dollars for pet programs and hitched on several policy "riders" as well. Few if any other spending bills are likely to come before the Senate this election year, which makes the supplemental measure an even more attractive vehicle for carrying spending proposals that would stall otherwise.
The White House is fighting the add-ons much more vigorously than it did during last year's bruising war funding debate. Then, it accepted $17 billion in spending that Bush didn't ask for as the price for getting an Iraq war funding bill that didn't tie his hands on the war.
Now that it's clear that Democrats won't insist on a troop withdrawal timeline, the White House is focusing on making sure the measure doesn't exceed his request.
The Senate war funding bill combines $194.1 billion in spending over 2008-2009 for war funding, foreign aid, military base construction, heating subsidies and a variety of smaller items. Then there's $14.5 billion to give 13 weeks of unemployment checks to people whose benefits have run out and $51.6 billion over 10 years to improve GI Bill benefits.
There's $108 billion remaining from Bush's war funding request for the 2008 budget year ending Sept. 30. But the White House appears willing to lump that request together with $70 billion to carry the war into next spring, as well as Bush's $5.8 billion request to construct levees in Louisiana.
That puts Bush's request at $183.8 billion - more than $10 billion below the Senate measure.
The immigrant farm labor provision added to the measure at a hearing last week by Sens Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, would allow almost 1.4 million immigrant farm workers to stay in the United States for up to five years
Maybe Larry Craig is looking for Jose to play footsie with in the bathroom stalls???
Where is *itch McConnell and his leadership on this???? And the asterisk does not replace an M in my book, given the milquetoast leadership I am seeing as of now.
