Who Is Really Acting In Bad Faith?
Congressional Democrats are complaining and running to the media protesting that they aren't getting enough pork, so they won't fund the troops. To people like David Obey in the House and Robert Byrd in the Senate, this is all the Republican's fault.
A Democratic deal to give President Bush some war funding in exchange for additional domestic spending appeared to collapse last night after House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) accused Republicans of bargaining in bad faith.
Instead, Obey said he will push a huge spending bill that would hew to the president's spending limit by stripping it of all lawmakers' pet projects, as well as most of the Bush administration's top priorities. It would also contain no money for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Absent a Republican willingness to sit down and work out a reasonable compromise, I think we ought to end the game and go to the president's numbers," Obey said. "I was willing to listen to the argument that we ought to at least add more for Afghanistan, but when the White House refuses to compromise, when the White House continues to stick it in our eye, I say to hell with it."….
…."If anybody thinks we can get out of here this week, they're smoking something illegal," he said.
Obey's proposal would ax about 9,500 home-district and home-state projects worth a total of $9.5 billion, according to Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. Republicans inserted about 40 percent of those projects. Not all of that money could be eliminated, however. The budget of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is parceled out as home-district projects, and Congress has no intention of eliminating the Army Corps.
Obey would not specify where the remaining billions would come from to reach Bush's bottom line, beyond saying the money would be shaved from the president's priorities. One possibility would be funding for abstinence education. Other targets could be nuclear weapons research and development in the Energy Department, NASA programs and high-technology border security efforts that have come under criticism for being wasteful and ineffective, said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
I pointed out the other day when Steny Hoyer was sent out to draw fire on this omnibus spending bill idea that it was a trial balloon. Obviously, it didn't fly. I will point out, once again, that the Republicans learned the bitter lesson that holding up the budget was politically painful when they did it under the Clinton administration. I suspect the Democrats will find out the same thing, but too late. Trying to use funding for the troops as a shield for pork is also going to become a real problem for the Democrats, very, very soon. Voters are seeing improvements in Iraq and are now watching the Democrats cutting off money - they'll remember this.
The Federal budget is now three months overdue and counting. What was that line from 2006? Oh, yeah. The 'do nothing' Congress. The last Congress is beginning to look like a model of productivity compared to this one.
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Right Voices » Blog Archive » Democrats Demand Pork In Exchange for Military Spending — Tuesday, 11 December , 2007 @ 10:51 am
By LYNNDH, Tuesday, 11 December , 2007 @ 11:15 am
This will Never hurt the Dems. The media will not report it fairly. The diehard Dems don’t care for anything but pulling out of Iraq and bashing Bush. It is all his fault and no one elses is the refrain. Come Nov. 2008 and none of this will mean a thing. Sorry to say.