Politics threatens passage of war-funding bill

Congress is back to the business of larding up the bill that’s supposed to be funding our troops in the field. Even the President is getting in on the act;

President Barack Obama originally sought $83.4 billion for the two wars and more foreign aid for countries like Pakistan.

But then he too sought more — $4 billion extra to combat H1N1 swine flu and $5 billion to back credit lines to the International Monetary Fund, which is trying to help developing countries weather the global economic downturn.

Some Republicans were ready to go along with it until the IMF provision was added;

Last month, 168 House Republicans supported the war-funding bill, but that was before the Senate inserted the IMF provision. The commitment reflects President Barack Obama’s promise at the April G-20 meeting of world leaders.

To give the IMF this line of credit “to bail out the rest of the world, I mean, this is lunacy,” said House Republican leader John Boehner , R- Ohio .

CNN reported a few hours ago that Congress decided to drop language that would release the so-called torture pictures from the bill;

House Democratic leaders plan to drop a provision — backed by President Obama — from the $100 billion war funding bill that would bar the release of detainee photos, according to House Democratic congressional aides.

But according to other sources, the BDS Left are revolting;

President Barack Obama’s penchant for last-minute demands, and a rebellion by liberal allies over his efforts to block the release of detainee abuse photos, have combined to sidetrack his bill to pay for an expanded war in Afghanistan as well as continuing military operations in Iraq.

Murtha gets his fingers in the pie to buy some more votes back home;

Democratic Representative John Murtha, who heads the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, managed to get $3.1 billion for eight C-17 and 11 C-130 military transport planes included. However, that has been pared back by four C-130s.

The Pentagon did not request the aircraft but lawmakers want them to preserve jobs in their home states and Murtha disputes the military’s contention that they are not needed.

Despite the fact that Democrats stalled for more than a year passing funding for the troops, they are now adopting the language of their former critics to plow some pork through Congress;

“This is a dangerous game Republicans are playing by jeopardizing the well-being of our soldiers to score political points,” the aide said. “The supplemental will be passed, but they will have to answer for their actions if they oppose it.”

Imagine the gall it takes to say that after Democrats spent two years trying to end the war by holding up funding.

Category: Liberals suck, Politics, Terror War, Usual Suspects