Posted on 12/02/2007 3:11:01 PM PST by mdittmar
President Bush said Congress must act quickly to approve a bill to fund troops in combat before members break for the holidays.
“Congress’ first priority should be to provide the funds and flexibility to keep our troops safe and help them protect our nation,” Bush said during his weekly radio address yesterday.
The president said he has submitted detailed requests to fund operations in the war on terror beginning in February, and he noted that troops have been waiting on the needed funds for months.
“The funds include money to carry out combat operations against the enemy in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Bush said. “They include money to train the Afghan and Iraqi security forces to take on more responsibility for the defense of their countries. And they include money for intelligence operations to protect our troops on the battlefield.”
Congress has approved supplemental funding for war operations, but such legislation comes attached with timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Bush has vowed to veto any such legislation that crosses his desk.
Following a Pentagon visit this week, the president told reporters the department’s missions were too important to be disrupted, delayed or put at risk.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and other senior defense officials warned the commander in chief that anticipated funding shortfalls have resulted in the preparation for the Army and Marine Corps to reduce operations at all bases during the first few months of 2008.
“(Gates) has already notified Congress that he will transfer money from accounts used to fund other activities of the military services to pay for current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and no more money can be moved,” Bush said.
In addition to reduced operations, the president explained that Gates has directed the two services to develop a play to lay off civilian employees and terminate contracts.
“Military leaders have told us what they need to do their job,” Bush said. “It is time for the Congress to do its job and give our troops what they need to protect America.”
Call your Elected officials and tell them to pass a clean bill, NO STRINGS! NOW!
Great big game of chicken between the White House and the Democrats.
Do the Democrats have the cajones to deny funding to our armed forces in time of war, while it appears our armed forces are winning?
Can the White House wait until the primary season is over and the Dem’s can once again ignore their left wing nutjobs?
Tick Tock Tick Tock. The hour hand is moving.
Who do you think will win?
The Democrats can win with the delay. But President Bush can and should make them bleed for it. He should brutalize them, *especially* during the holidays when they are not in session.
The President should let every grandmother out there know that congress has abandoned the soldiers in the field, and as they, the grandmothers, are enjoying a holiday meal in a warm house with their loving family, they should think of the young men and women, freezing in a foreign land all alone, in the dark, and denied their holiday dinner.
And all because of calculating and mean-spirited fat Democrat politicians, who despise the soldiers while enjoying their brandy and cigars after a sumptuous banquet.
Ronald Reagan could have had most of the grandmothers in the country in tears with such a speech.
Congress really needs to have its butt kicked over this one.
He should call a special session of Congress and make them stay thru the Holidays until a clean bill is passed (PERIOD). The rats are treasonous they have given up on our soldiers whom they sent into combat... Right they called for them to surrender so thier position is surrender or we will force you to bleed out on the battlefield because we will not fund you.... Hows that for being the Grinch.
I’m on it SandRat, thanks!!
The President does not have the Constitutional authority to convene Congress in legislative session, though he may have some authority to summon individual Senators into executive session, if he needs their “advice and counsel”.
Congress sets its own rules for itself, through the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Rules Committee. This means that not only can’t the President (or the Judiciary) force them to do something, but each house cannot force the other house to do something.
Yes they in fact do... Once Congres adjorns the President can call them back to specials session...
Article II, section 3, of the Constitution grants the President authority to call for an extraordinary, or “special,” session of Congress after it has already adjourned [he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them . . . ] However, while the President can force the Congress to meet he cannot force them to act. He can state the reason for his calling them into session and place before them and the nation his request. Congress would still retain the authority as an independent branch of government to act or not act on the President’s request, and to transact other business if it so wishes.
Twenty-seven sessions of Congress have been convened by Presidents in the history of Congress. President John Adams was the first President to call the Congress into special session in 1797 over suspending relations with France. The last President to convene Congress was President Harry Truman in 1948, who did so to urge enactment of his domestic legislative agenda expanding New Deal programs. Truman’s call for a special session was done in a direct political context — he issued his intention to do so from the Democratic Convention platform. Congress’ failure to pass the domestic bills in that special session led to Truman’s 1948 campaign slogan, the “Do-Nothing 80th Congress.”
The President’s rationale for calling an extraordinary Congress, although subject to public and political scrutiny, is not subject to challenge. President Truman, for example, merely stated that the “public interest requires it.”
When the special session of Congress called by the President convenes, it does so on the date and at the time he stipulates in his proclamation. The leaders of both bodies are formally notified. On the designated day, the presiding officer of each chamber calls the body into order “pursuant to the Constitution and to the proclamation of the President of the United States.” The Clerk of the chamber will then read the President’s proclamation to the assembled Members.
Here are the reasons given by past Presidents for calling Congress into extraordinary session:
President Adams
Relations with France
President Jefferson
(1) Louisiana Purchase by France (2) U.S.-British Relations
President Madison
War with Britain
President Tyler
Financial condition of the country
President Pierce
Appropriations for the Army
President Lincoln
Civil War
President Hayes
Appropriations for the Army
President Cleveland
Repeal of Silver Purchase
President McKinley
Special Tariff
President Roosevelt
Trade treaty with Cuba
President Taft
(1) Special Tariff (2) Trade with Canada
President Wilson
(1) World War I (2) Federal Reserve Act (3) Cost of Living
President Harding
(1) Emergency Tariff (2) Merchant Marine
President Hoover
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
President Roosevelt
(1) New Deal legislative agenda (2) Wage and Hours Act (3) Neutrality
President Truman
Domestic issue agenda
I guess if Truman can do it then Bush can too....
Go get em Mr. President.
Don't hold your breath, George, it's not happening. At least it's extremely unlikely. The DemonRats are invested in defeat, they aren't going to fund victory if they can possibly help it. And even though it's a political ploy for them, they also tend to be the ones who "loath the military", so it's easy for them.
I think you'll search the Constitution in vain for the power for the President to make Congress do anything, let alone that.
I’m with you all the way. That is exactly what the president should do if Congress adjourns without funding the troops. Remember how quickly they called uncle over the anti-terrorism bill?
Given that he has the power to do that, he should do it. I hope the Bastids miss their Christmas ham, and all the campaign donations that would be under their tree at home.
Remembering that ham is just "cured" pork.
I like the idea of convening the dorks at Christmas. The President should remain in the White House at Christmas, use the opportunity to call a press conference thus making the liberal press miss their traditional Christmas binge, visit the troops at Bethesda and Walter Reed, attend Christmas Eve services at one of the chapels on military bases, dine with the Marines at Eighth and Eye, and anything else he or his people can think of to underscore that they are for the troops and the democrats are not. In all probability a good many democrats will miss muster at the special Christmas session, and that point should be exploited, as well. Treat them like the bunch of useless idiots they actually are.
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