WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats in Congress, seeking to avoid a vote on funding the Iraq war during the fall campaign season, are likely to combine President Bush's two pending requests into a single bill to be voted on this spring. House Democratic aides said Thursday that Bush's $108 billion request to finance military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the Oct. 1 end of the 2008 budget year is likely to be combined with his $70 billion request to continue the war into the next president's term."You vote one time and get the money out of the way," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House panel responsible for the Pentagon budget. He cautioned that House leaders have not officially endorsed the idea.
| Only thing I want from Murtha is an apology from him to the Marines ... |
Democrats are struggling behind-the-scenes to coordinate strategy for passing the war funding bill, a task made more difficult by a recent Bush threat to veto any domestic add-ons to the war funding measure that would bring its price tag above his request. D
emocrats are poised to defy the veto threat by adding to the Iraq funding bill a measure to significantly expand education benefits for veterans. The new GI bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., would greatly increase college education benefits for veterans to cover tuition and fees at most public universities. That would, on average, double college aid for veterans to about $12,000 per year at a cost of up to $4 billion a year under preliminary Congressional Budget Office estimates. The additional money for college aid for veterans has bipartisan support and could be difficult for Bush to stop in an election year.
| And little reason why he would. But read on ... |
| Using the war bill as a Christmas tree ... |
Meanwhile, Democrats are poised to clip almost $10 billion worth of savings from Bush's war funding request and shift the money to other purposes, including long-term purchases of next generation F-22 fighter planes, 15 C-17 cargo planes and 10 C-130 cargo planes. Another $3.5 billion would be diverted to pay for higher fuel costs. The savings to pay for the military add-ons would come from a lower estimate for operations costs, reducing purchases of light trucks for the Army, and purchases of fewer combat radios, according to documents the Pentagon gave to lawmakers.
| Once again taking money from our troops for their pork. Lawmakers are at least predictable. |