They voted to give the President a blank check, approving $95 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with no strings attached. To make it more palatable for the undecided, they filled it with pork. What do Katrina victims and additional supplemental appropriations for agricultural and other emergency assistance have to do with Iraq?
The House voted 280-142. I'm ashamed of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and my senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez voting yes, knowing this gives the President everything he wanted to keep going on in this war.
The Senate voted 80-14 with 6 non-votes. For the record, presidential candidates Obama, Clinton, and Dodd voted No. Ex-Senator John Edwards was against it too:
"Washington failed America today when Congress surrendered to the president's demand for another blank check that prolongs the war in Iraq. It is time for this war to end.
"Congress should immediately use its funding power to cap troop levels in Iraq at 100,000, stop the ongoing surge, and force an immediate drawdown of 40-50,000 troops, followed by a complete withdrawal in about a year.
"The American people's call for a new course in Iraq was not answered today, but Congress still has the power to end this war. Our security and democracy alike demand it."
Note that this $95 billion is only until the end of the fiscal year in September 2007. Then they will have to vote again for another $100 billion or so and the money goes pouring out ad-nauseam. So much for fiscal responsibility. So much for moral values.
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