Blunt Blasts Iraq Vote; Bush Vows Veto

Rep. Roy Blunt blasted a House vote that orders President Bush to withdraw combat troops from Iraq next year.

The House voted 218-212, mostly along party lines, for a binding war spending bill that requires most combat operations endm before September 2008 or earlier.

President Bush vowed to veto the bill.

During the debate, Rep. Blunt asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the House Appropriations Committee to produce a "clean and straightforward supplemental emergency bill."

"What we got instead was a poorly assembled wish list of non-emergency spending requests, wrapped in a date-certain declaration of defeat – a confirmation to our enemies that, if they hang on just a bit longer, we’ll be out of their way soon," Blunt said.

Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton backs the timetable.

After the Democratic victory on the floor, Blunt issued this statement:

“In voting to tie the hands of our commanders in the field, Democrats today voted themselves capable of managing the affairs of war – not from the theatre of battle, but from the confines of their Capitol Hill offices more than 6,000 miles away. And in attaching more than $20 billion of non-emergency funding to the bill, they put a price tag on the operational integrity of our military and its continued ability to accomplish the task at hand.

“This was a vote in which the majority leadership forced their Members to take an ill-advised vote on a measure that will never see the president’s desk, just to pander to the ‘Out of Iraq’ Caucus and Moveon.org.

“The debate this week should have been focused on finding effective ways to ensure our troops in the field have ready access to the resources they need to complete their mission. Instead, the only dialogue that got any attention was what the speaker would need to promise in order to buy her members’ support for this poorly assembled, short-sighted bill.

“Today won’t be our last chance to do right by our soldiers. But whether the bill is altered in the Senate, or ultimately sent back to this chamber by the president – none of that should diminish the gravity of what happened here this afternoon.

“The speaker’s far-left constituency may be disenchanted by this bill’s passage, but I assure you our men and women in the field are even more disappointed in this Congress for undermining their mission by our message, and for delaying in practice the funding they need to be safe, secure and successful.”