Democrats Still Playing Politics
By JB Williams (05/22/08)
While Troops Await "Support" (again) - According to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, the emergency war funding bill currently stalled in the Senate must be passed by Memorial Day or the Defense Department would have to delay paychecks beginning June 15, 2008.
But this was no last minute budget request from the Commander-in-Chief that congress has not had time to approve. The passage of the war funding bill was not an “emergency” when it was first requested by Bush or introduced in the House.
Congressional Democrats have simply been playing politics with the measure for so long, that it has now become an “emergency” effort on a tight deadline. Even Democrat Joe Lieberman is outraged, in his Wall Street Journal piece titled “Democrats and Our Enemies.”
Old Tactics, New Priorities
Remember the congressional circus stunt last year, when Democrats tried to tie troop funding to a mountain of pork, troop retreat and defeat in the Iraq theater of operations, leaving the troops without “support” until the eleventh hour while they played politics? Well, they are at it again, but this time, they have a new set of priorities.
In the Spring 2007, Democrats were desperate to establish themselves as the “anti-war” party who would bring our troops home before they can complete their mission, all for base constituents at Code Pink, MoveOn.org and similar anti-America activist groups, whom they would soon seek funding from as they head into the 2008 election cycle.
Confident that they were far from enough votes to actually force early retreat from Iraq, they were perfectly safe in attaching the “retreat in defeat” condition to the Iraq spending bill that Bush was never going to sign. Bingo – anti-war status mission accomplished, without a single soldier withdrawn and in the end, they even gave Bush the money he needed to carry on operations.
Fast-forward to Spring 2008 - After House Democrats diddled with the 2008 war funding bill for several weeks, weighing it down with more “feel-good” do-nothing pork amendments, they finally passed it to the Senate where Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Larry Craig (R-ID) stopped it dead in its tracks.
With the help of committee Democrats, they piled on an amendment that included not only billions more in unrelated pork barrel spending for democrat pet projects, but much worse. In that amendment was;
* Amnesty for illegal migrant workers
* Amnesty for illegals who had committed ID theft
* Immunity for illegals who had even stolen Social Security numbers
* Amnesty for tax fraud and tax evasion by illegal aliens as well
"No matter how one characterizes this enormous amendment, it still amounts to amnesty," Said Senior Democrat Senator Robert Byrd.
As WakeUpAmerica points out, “This is not the first time that these types of bills have been introduced and have either failed or been withdrawn.
In May of 2006 and 2007, the Senate attempted to pass legislation which some believed would give comprehensive mass amnesty to illegal aliens, which failed. - and in September of 2007, the Senate tried to push through the DREAM Act which would have given in-state college tuition for young illegal aliens. That too failed.”
In 2007, Democrats delayed “support” for our troops in combat while they played politics over the war effort itself. In 2008, they have turned their priorities to Amnesty for Illegals and more pork barrel spending, as once again, our soldiers await the “support” every member of congress claims to give our troops.
In the end, they will give that support, at the eleventh hour, and with every other agenda item they can force upon Bush while they hold a gun to his head.
These are YOUR Democrats…
- And this is how they “support OUR Troops,” by placing illegal migration and amnesty ahead of our troops in harm’s way.
Again, Bush promised to veto the bill if it was loaded down with unrelated spending, and when the congressional phone lines lit up over yet another backstabbing attempt to sneak amnesty for illegals past the American voter by hiding it in a war spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled the AgJobs amnesty portion of the amendment from the bill.
Reid also pulled the increase for “skilled” worker visas from the bill. However, he did not pull the increased visa requirement for “unskilled” illegal workers, which were sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD.).
This provision would exempt from the annual cap of 66,000 any H-2B nonagricultural seasonal workers who were admitted during the previous three years. This could increase the annual number of H-2B workers to over 400,000 by FY 2011.
To make it all smell better…
Democrats also added GI Bill and other after duty military spending, in the name of “supporting the troops.” These may or may not be good ideas, but the War funding bill is not the place or time for partisan vote pandering, or I guess, maybe it is… since it seems to work for some.
Aside from the stench, and the backstabbing attempt to ramrod amnesty past the voters one more time, this is exactly how Washington outspends every budget and is well on its way to bankrupting the richest nation on earth. So long as completely unrelated spending can be piggybacked on pieces of legislation that must pass, spending will always exceed the budget, no matter how big that budget might be.
Meet the Democrats who promise to clean up Washington! Stupid is as stupid does…
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