Another war-money showdown looms

by Matthew Hay Brown

Congressional Democrats and the White House are headed for another showdown over war funding. But this time, the conflict is unlikely to be over the mission in Iraq.

With a Senate majority too narrow to overcome Republican opposition, and quieted by the success of the troop surge in tamping down violence, Democrats have backed away from efforts to force President Bush to wind the war down.

Instead, they're talking about loading up the next emergency supplemental bill with other spending. Congressional leaders are considering using the legislation, which could hit the House floor as early as next week, as a vehicle for funding another economic stimulus package, investing in infrastructure or boosting benefits for veterans.

Bush doesn't like that either.

"I made my position very clear to Congress and I will not accept a supplemental over $108 billion," he said this week. "We will work with Congress on these veterans' benefits.
I'm a firm believer that we ought to treat our veterans with respect. In the State of the Union I talked about the idea of transferring - a soldier being able to transfer educational benefits to a spouse or children. We've sent legislation to that effect up to Congress; we would like for them to move on it quickly. But the $108 billion is $108 billion."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Wednesday that he didn't want to discuss what would be in the supplemental before final decisions had been made. But he didn't sound bound to Bush's figure.

"I reject the President's view that all this supplemental should be is for spending money overseas," the Maryland Democrat told reporters. "We believe Americans have needs. Whether it's still responding to Katrina years after we promised that we would do so, whether it's responding to people who are unemployed and having a tough time, whether it's responding to making sure that we have some emergencies met in this country as opposed to in Iraq or Afghanistan, we think Americans believe that that is a priority item for them. We share that view."

If past experience is any guide, Bush seems likely to get his way in the end. On previous war spending bills, the president and his congressional allies stared down Democratic efforts to change the mission in Iraq; in the end, Congress has always delivered the money Bush has sought.

Democratic leaders have said they would not withhold funding for troops in the theater - a point Hoyer reiterated Wednesday.

"Clearly we're at war, or it's a different kind of war, but we have, as you know what my position has been, we have men and women that we have asked and sent in harm's way," he said. "And obviously we have a responsibility to address that. The President says that they need additional sums to fund that effort. And my position, as you know, is until such time as we take them out and have a policy of redeployment we need to support them while they're there."