Posted on 05/03/2007 6:33:51 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
President Bush and congressional leaders began negotiating a second war funding bill yesterday, with Democrats offering the first major concession: an agreement to drop their demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq.
Democrats backed off after the House failed, on a vote of 222 to 203, to override the president's veto of a $124 billion measure that would have required U.S. forces to begin withdrawing as early as July. But party leaders made it clear that the next bill will have to include language that influences war policy. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) outlined a second measure that would step up Iraqi accountability, "transition" the U.S. military role and show "a reasonable way to end this war."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Blaming Bush is now an obsessive compulsive behavior on the left and unfortunately some on our side are also suffering from it.
Correct, the President has good enough freedom to allocate money from other parts of the budget, in particular the Pentagon budget, to fund the war.
Posturing and then winning is not stupid. Bush will now agree to have his hands tied to some degree. He’s already said as much. This is an egregious infringement on the rights of the Executive, IMO.
What did the democrats win?
Emasculating and weakening the Presidency (ie. Bush). The President alone has the right to direct foreign policy. If he doesent want time limits, then that should be it; now it looks like he’ll cut some sort of deal on that, IMO
Thanks Ernie for the leg work. If I had more time I would have posted it. Things sure taint what they look like from the occasional news readers view. Obviously we look at the compost with juandice eyes for good reasons but if this babe is really pulling *hit off, it would go a far way in seeing why Sadr and his goons have gotten off rather softly of lately.
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