President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid head to a Wednesday meeting at the White House with uncompromising stances on a war spending measure that includes Iraq withdrawal language.
“I hope the Democratic leadership will drop their unreasonable demands for a precipitous withdrawal,” Bush said today. Reid, D-Nev., countered by saying his “offer is that the president sign the bill.”
House and Senate lawmakers are expected to begin hammering out differences this week on the measure (HR 1591) in the shadow of a veto threat. But it is becoming more apparent that each side wants to play out the veto before they get to work writing legislation that will actually get signed into law.
The House version of the $123-billion-plus measure includes language requiring U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq by the end of August 2008. The Senate bill sets an earlier deadline of March 31, 2008, but that date is a “goal,” and therefore non-binding.
Yet when questioned about the next steps after Bush vetoes a bill with a withdrawal timeline, Reid admitted a fresh supplemental bill with benchmarks, rather than a firm withdrawal date, is likely to emerge.
“The president is not going to get a bill that has nothing on it,” Reid said.
Congressional Democrats have already shown they’re willing to micro-manage the war. The next question is whether they will be satisfied with the inclusion of benchmarks in the bill, or whether they will insist on ‘micro-funding’ the war as well. That’s the best description I can think of for the proposal that they fund the war in installments, ensuring that the Pentagon never has more than a few months of funding left. In either case, the Democrats look set to pursue a politically risky strategy: sending the president a bill he has promised to veto, and threatening to follow it with another version that the president might also veto. Note: The Say Anything Blog offers an excerpt from Harry Reid’s press conference today, at which he made plain just how committed the Democrats are to working with the President. The highlight:
Reporter: ‘So are you going to go to the White House with some kind of proposal for the President, some kind of offer?’
Reid: ‘The offer is that the President sign our bill’
Remember that Reid and the Democrats have complained about the president’s refusal to compromise.
