Most House Democrats Support Extra Money For More War
At the end of this week, while most Americans were distracted, getting ready to play for the 4th of July weekend, the House of Representatives passed a huge spending bill that includes 37 billion dollars in extra spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s spending above and beyond what’s in the record-breaking military budget this year.
Only 8.6 percent of Democrats and 1.7 percent of Republicans voted in favor of withholding the extra 37 billion dollars.
Only 36.5 percent of Democrats and 3.9 percent of Republicans voted in favor of an amendment that would have restricted use of the 37 billion dollars to support the protection of Americans currently in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of the American military and military contractors from Afghanistan.
Only 59.2 percent of Democrats and 6.2 percent of Republicans voted in favor of an amendment that would have required the Obama Administration to provide a strategic assessments, a withdrawal timetable, and status updates from the war in Afghanistan.
Most Democrats and Republicans alike saw fit to allow the Obama Administration to continue fighting what has become the longest war in American history and opposed holding the military to its budget as well, contradicting their previous speeches about the dangers of out of control spending. Only a thin majority of Democrats supported an increase in the requirements for keeping the American people informed about the war’s progress.
It seems clear that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats can claim to represent that sizeable group of Americans that has been asking, for most of the last decade, for peace.
