Democrats to attach add-ons to Iraq bill

[oberliner]

WASHINGTON - While Democrats try to restrict how President Bush can spend the $100 billion he wants for Iraq, they also hope to load his measure up with $10 billion in add-ons — from aid for avocado growers to help for children lacking health insurance.

Lawmakers also hope to add money for drought relief in the Great Plains, better levees in New Orleans and development of military bases that are closing down.

The expected battle with the White House over the add-ons is getting far less attention than debate over Iraq, but it could reveal a lot about how much Democrats will be able to rewrite the Republican president's budget later this year.

Bush has yet to veto a spending bill, and Democrats are gambling he'll sign the Iraq measure despite objections to spending he didn't seek. Republicans, meanwhile, may be reluctant to vote against the package since it contains funds for U.S. troops overseas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070301/ap_on_go_co/iraq_add_ons;_ylt=AkWMuDtOxXqg_a6d_BsGidLMWM0F

[rgbecker]

1. Load it up! n/t

[Bonobo]

2. Even if they're good issues, this is a crappy way of running the Govt.

These add-ons are bullshit and their should be a law against adding things that have nothing to do with a bill.

It's bullshit, it has bitten our ass before and it will bite our ass again.

[Kutjara]

3. Bush'll sign it all right...

...then he'll issue a signing statement voiding all the provisions except the one that lets him piss another $100 billion up the wall.

[msongs]

5. exactly, until the DEMS challenge him on this nt

[Javaman]

10. Ding! Ding! Ding! we have a winner!!!

Rather than do what is right and suspend morons* spending, they try the load it up with shit tactic. And in the end, like everything else, moron* will ignore them.

I'm really beginning to wonder what we really won in November if the Senate Dems don't stand up to the jackass*.

I think they are all worried that LIEberman will bolt to the repukes. Why are they worried about that? LIEberman already does the repuke tango now, so what would be the difference?

I get so tired of living in an alternative universe.

[oldtimecanuk]

4. I think no matter how you look at it, the American People are screwed...

The above post is absolutely correct, this is no way to run a Government.... This damn signing statements have got to be challenged, and now... this is absolute Bull Shit.... I won't dare ask the question of who does this guy think he is anyway.... We all know the answer to that anyway...

ww

[w4rma]

6. I support this. Its probably the only way New Orleans will get funding for levees past GOP

obstructionism in the Senate and from Bush.

[ShockediSay]

7. Why not cut funding for the war in Iraq? ans:

to do so deprives us of the possibility of finding a position that works, short of complete pullout and chaos that a funding cut would entail

e.g. we could place our troops so that they guard the borders of Iraq to nab foreign jihadists

[BenDavid]

8. WE should applaud the Dems

for coming to their senses and got away from that damn cutting the funding. I wrote several of the chairpersons in the House and Senate and told them the following. " Today, the Iraq war is thought of as Mr. Bushs' war. If you go ahead and even pass a bill in either House of Congress and the Republicans will have as their talking points, "We would have won in Iraq if the Democrats had not cut the funding"...Now that in and of itself would not be too bad, but the second wave would then fall, and the media would join in and echo what the Republicans are saying and the Iraq War will belong to the Democrats...

Seems as though someone thought the same as I and many others here on the DU.....

[seriousstan]

9. I love the smell of pork in the morning....no matter how your cook it. it is still pork.

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm......bacon....the perfect condiment.