Wednesday, May 2, 2007

A Plan, A Stand and A Problem

The President has vetoed the Congress's spending bill which included troop withdrawl provision. The plan, give troops the funding that they need until they can be brought home. The stand, sending that plan to the President. The problem, the President has decided to not fund the troops and to not bring them home.

Regardless of political beliefs, a few things cannot be denied. Aside from simply cutting funding for the troops, this was the strongest move that the Democrats could make to precipitate a troop withdrawl. As the current administration has shown however, aside from cutting funding, there will be no troop withdrawl anytime in the near future. However, at the same time, the White House has effectively done just that, cut the funding for the troops.

What happens now?

The Democrats have three options. First, they could sit down with the Administration and try to come to an agreement on a troop withdrawl strategy. This would probably be the best option, however, I don't see this happening. The sides will probably sit down, but the Administration will not budge. The Administration does not want to leave Iraq on their watch. It is in the Administration's interest to maintain troops in Iraq until the next president takes over, then Iraq will be their problem. Second, the Democrats could simply decide not to pass a funding bill. This seems like an unlikely and probably poor option. Aside from how the public and troops may react to such a measure, it would seem unlikely that it would pass in the Senate. Third, the Democrats could modify the spending bill slightly, try to draw more Republican support and send a bill similar to the recently vetoed one to the White House. This probably is not the best option, but boy, it would be fun. Another plan, another stand, and another problem.

Could the White House afford to cut the funding for the troops twice?



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