Gee how I wish I could find a way to make this sound as if the Democrats are just kidding, but alas, they are serious. “Give us our pork and we will give you that stupid military spending that you keep harping about Mr. President”:
A Democratic deal to give President Bush some war funding in exchange for additional domestic spending appeared to collapse last night after House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) accused Republicans of bargaining in bad faith.
Instead, Obey said he will push a huge spending bill that would hew to the president’s spending limit by stripping it of all lawmakers’ pet projects, as well as most of the Bush administration’s top priorities. It would also contain no money for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. ….That still leaves the war-funding issue unresolved. Democratic leadership aides on Capitol Hill concede that at some point, Republicans can add some money for Iraq as a stripped-down spending bill winds through Congress. But plans for a quick end to the showdown appear to be fading.
“It is extraordinary that the president would request an 11 percent increase for the Department of Defense, a 12 percent increase for foreign aid, and $195 billion of emergency funding for the war while asserting that a 4.7 percent increase for domestic programs is fiscally irresponsible,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) said.
Let’s get this straight. The nation is fighting a war on two fronts, and Byrd finds it extraordinary that the Bush administration wants more money for the nation’s defense and diplomatic efforts. At the same time, Byrd can’t figure out that spending less on domestic programs means that the White House has actually begun to budget the nation’s money based on priorities, rather than just mollify old pols and continue the pork-barrel nonsense. Perhaps Byrd has little familiarity with the concept, but when most people and organizations spend more on one area of their budget, they have to cut others.
And Byrd finds this “extraordinary”?
The Federal budget is now three months overdue and counting. What was that line from 2006? Oh, yeah. The ‘do nothing’ Congress. The last Congress is beginning to look like a model of productivity compared to this one.
Only a seriously self-obsessed fool would threaten the lives of our military overseas to get his way on a budget deal. But the Dems are not capable of leading. They cannot stomach the compromise required to get bills past a divided Congress. They can’t give up anything – they would rather pout to the cameras and cripple our government.
Although it’s always a bit hard from the outside to really know what’s going on, it seems like Obey has the right idea here. Bush and the gang are playing a game, not negotiating. They march the Democrats towards a “compromise” then pull the football away, demanding that they give Dear Leader everything he wants, making the Democrats look like complete losers in the process.
The Democrats have done this to themselves. Look who they elected to go after a man that the nutroots considers to be a braincell shy of retardation. If Bush is so stupid, why is it that the Democrats come out looking like the losers?
H/T to Memeorandum
Obey is an *sshole. If he doesn’t fund the military, he should have a “Terminal Cheney moment”.
Obey is a stupid brainless braying jackass why dont he go take a hike instead of being such a jerk:-w
If the RNC is smart, it will play up how the Dems are refusing to fund the troops unless they’re allowed to blow the budget completely out of whack with huge increases in welfare programs already beset by fraud. Just search MSNBC for the Medicare fraud story they ran this weekend. We’re talking BILLIONS in medicare fraud out of Miami Dade county alone. Imagine how much better than money could be put to use for other things.