PrintJune 8, 2008
Bush Warns of Pay Cuts for Troops
President Bush warned Congress in his radio address yesterday that he may be forced to cut military pay if they do not pass the $165 billion war funding bill - without all the bells and whistles added by Senate Democrats:
In his weekly radio address, Bush told Democrats that any bill cleared by Congress should not “exceed the reasonable funding levels” he requested for this fiscal year. The House is considering a Senate-passed bill that includes $165 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into the next presidency.
The White House has demanded that Congress approve a bill strictly with war funding, but the Senate measure also includes a $52 billion, 10-year measure that would pay for higher-education benefits for military veterans, an $11 billion, 13-week extension of unemployment insurance, $1 billion for low-income heating assistance and billions more for Gulf Coast reconstruction. It's unclear what bill will emerge from the House, but Democratic leaders have conceded that the price tag and domestic add-ons would need to be slashed in order to generate enough support from the conservative wing of their caucus, which is concerned about growing the budget deficit.
Bush said that if Congress does not act promptly, "critical accounts at the Department of Defense will soon run dry." He added that civilian employees may face "temporary layoffs," and the Pentagon would be forced to "close down a vital program that is getting potential insurgents off the streets and into jobs." If the supplemental spending bill is not enacted after July, Bush said, the department would "no longer be able to pay our troops," including ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senate Democrats are well aware that the President is likely to veto a bill with all the add ons. It is just the most recent move in a long line of obstructions they have tried to place on funding the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan. Playing politics with the lives of our troops has been the Democrat's modus operandi for nearly 4 years now and each time they have tried to paint the president in a corner, he has gotten what he wanted - largely with the help of Senate Republicans who have stood by him in funding the war.
It appears something similar will happen this time that has happened in the past. Rather than funding the war for the next year, the president will offer up a plan to fund the war for the next few months, guaranteeing the Democrats will be given another opportunity to play politics with war funding before the next election.
What a way to run a goverment...
