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Jennifer03801
Starlite Member
Username: Jennifer03801
| | Posted on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 07:51 pm: | 
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War Funding Bill Approved 218-212; Bush Vows Veto
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 24, 2007; Page A01
A sharply divided House voted yesterday to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq by next summer, attaching a timetable for withdrawal to the billions of dollars in war funding President Bush has demanded to prosecute an increasingly unpopular war.
Within minutes of passage, Bush denounced the bill as "an act of political theater" and an abdication of responsibility, sternly repeating his pledge to veto it.
"These Democrats believe that the longer they can delay funding for our troops, the more likely they are to force me to accept restrictions on our commanders, an artificial timetable for withdrawal, and their pet spending projects. This is not going to happen," the president said. "The Democrats have sent their message. Now it's time to send their money."
But Democrats were in no mood to compromise after a 218 to 212 vote that largely united the fractious Democratic caucus behind one of the toughest antiwar measures ever to pass a house of Congress during combat operations. Just two Republicans, Reps. Wayne T. Gilchrest (Md.) and Walter B. Jones (N.C.), voted in favor. Fourteen Democrats -- the party's most conservative members and its most liberal -- voted no.
The bill would establish strict standards for resting, training and equipping combat troops before their deployment and lay down binding benchmarks for the Iraqi government, such as assuming control of security operations, quelling sectarian violence and more equitably distributing oil revenue. If progress is not made toward those benchmarks, some troops would be required to come home as early as July. In any event, troop withdrawals would have to begin in March 2008, with all combat forces out by Aug. 31, 2008.
"We answered the call that so many families here in America were asking our Congress to do," said Rep. Patrick J. Murphy (D-Pa.), a former paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division who fought in Iraq and has become one of his party's leading spokesmen on the war. "No longer is this Congress going to stand idly by and watch our brave and heroic men and women go to referee a religious civil war."
"Proudly, this new Congress voted to bring an end to the war in Iraq," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who achieved by far the biggest victory of her three-month-old speakership.
The $124 billion legislation includes more than $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus billions more than Bush requested for combat equipment and training, for military housing and health care, to address the flaws in mental health care, brain trauma treatment and other issues that surfaced in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal. Billions more were added for veterans' care, agricultural assistance and drought relief, homeland security, and Gulf Coast hurricane recovery.
More at WP Online
War Funding Bill Approved 218-212; Bush Vows Veto
Bush doesn't support the troops and neither do the Republicans who voted against the bill.
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Jennifer03801
Starlite Member
Username: Jennifer03801
| | Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 - 04:03 am: |
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Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., a freshman legislator and former 82nd Airborne Division officer who served in Iraq, spoke of the 19 fellow paratroopers in his unit that were killed in Iraq. Murphy said that the vote offered members of the House a chance to show leadership where the administration had failed.
As he spoke, his voice wavered as he recalled a soldier in his command asking when the Iraqis would step up and deal with their own security problems.
"He said, 'Sir, what are we still doing over here?' " Murphy said.
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