Iraq War Funding Vote Redux

House Democrats will hold yet another vote on Iraq War funding.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will vote as early as Friday on legislation that would spend $50 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but require that President Bush start bringing troops home.

The money is about a quarter of the $196 billion requested by Bush. It would finance about four months of combat in Iraq, Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.

“This is not a blank check for the president,” she said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “This is providing funding for the troops limited to a particular purpose, for a short time frame.”

The irony here is that, while trying to make the point that they oppose the war and show that they have the ability to constrain President Bush, these repeated stunts have exactly the opposite effect.

If Congress wants to end funding for the war and force the president to bring the troops home, they have the ability at their disposal. Rather clearly, though, they lack the votes to do either of those things. This is, therefore, merely a production of the Speaker Who Cried Wolf.

FILED UNDER: Congress, Iraq War, , , , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. yetanotherjohn says:

    Or it will be like the dog who continuously chases cars. The dog will continue in a fruitless but presumably enjoyable passtime, get run over or wonder what it has got a hold of if it actually catches a car.