Democrats vow to challenge new Iraq plan
Democratic leaders of Congress vowed today to use their powers of spending and policy oversight to challenge President Bush’s expected proposal this week for boosting U.S. military forces in Iraq by as many as 20,000 troops.
Calling Iraq a nation in “complete chaos,” new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other Democrats cast the anticipated Bush plan as an escalation of the Iraq war rather than the significant change of course sought by American voters, and said as a result they would treat the plan — and new funding requests — with strong skepticism.
If the president wants to add to this mission, he’s going to have to justify it,” Pelosi said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” emphasizing that while Congress will not cut off funding for troops now in Iraq, the White House will no longer have a “blank check” for expanding the war effort.
“When the bill comes . . . it will receive the harshest scrutiny,” she said, referring to a new supplemental spending request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that is expected to surpass $100 billion. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, more than $500 billion has been spent on the wars and terrorism-related expenditures around the world, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Still, opinions were divided among Democrats over how much Congress can do. Sen. Joe Biden (D) of Delaware, who announced today as expected that he will run for president in 2008, argued on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it would be unconstitutional for Congress to authorize the war but then cap troop levels or cut funding for specific items. Biden said any troop surge would be “a tragic mistake . . . but as a practical matter there is no way to say, ‘Mr. President, stop.’ ”
Republican lawmakers, for their part, voiced general support for the Bush plan as outlined although they acknowledged it will be controversial and unpopular. Congress should not attempt to micromanage the war or cut off funding for U.S. troops, they said, warning that Democratic proposals for beginning a gradual U.S. military withdrawal in four to six months could lead to a “failed state” in Iraq and spell disaster for the Middle East.
“At the end of the day . . . I don’t think Congress will cut off money for the troops,” new Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Congress is incapable of micromanaging the tactics in the war. And even though this will be a controversial step, I think the president will be able to carry it out, and I hope he’ll be successful.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-N.C.), who along with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is a strong backer of sending more troops to Iraq, said.
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