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Monday, April 30, 2007
Politics first, then troop funding
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The veto that the anti-war left knew had the certainty of a Joe Biden talkathon is coming this week, as President Bush follows through on his promise to veto a troop-funding bill for the war that includes a withdrawal timetable from Iraq.
It was, in fact, rather amusing to read over the weekend that peanut farmers had “lost” in the process of drafting a new version of the legislation Bush will veto. Democrats had tacked $74 million in peanut storage and shipping subsidies onto the $124.2 billion troop-funding bill. They also included $650 million in funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Georgia version of which is PeachCare, along with $400 million for low-income heating assistance and $13.2 million for avian flu research.
So how serious are Congressional Democrats about governing? First they add the timetable, knowing full well Bush will veto it, and then they attach money to cover sick children, frightened adults worried about another 1918 flu pandemic, poor people in need of heat, and farmers who can always make a convincing argument that they’re headed to the poor-house unless taxpayers step up with another subsidy.
That’s on the first bill.On the rewrite, Democrats will certainly delete the timetable requirement. It has filled its intended purpose, suggesting to the country that they have an alternative without actually requiring them to be responsible for failure, if it comes, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) predicts. Instead of a timetable, Democrats are expected to set benchmarks that order the Iraqi goverment to achieve results in allocating oil resources and in showing evidence of broadened popular support.
The President won’t accept a bill that punishes Iraq if the government fails to meet Congressional benchmarks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. “To begin now to tie our own hands — and to say ‘We must do this if they don’t do that’ — doesn’t allow us the flexibility and creativity that we need to move this forward,” she said.
If you ever wonder why Americans are growing more cynical and disenchanted with politics, look no farther. What you see now in Washington in the drafting, and the redrafting, of the troop funding bill is all the evidence the country needs.
