Reluctant support for war
The House vote on an emergency spending bill shows that President Barack Obama faces weakening support among his own Democrats for his determination to keep at the war in Afghanistan.
The $59 billion bill — the largest part of which is $33 billion to support the president's 33,000-troop surge — passed 308 to 114 Tuesday thanks to substantial Republican support. In fact, more Republicans, 160, voted for the bill than Democrats, 148.
Only 12 Republicans voted against the measure while 102 Democrats opposed it, including Rep. David Obey, Wis., the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
The leak of the 92,000 military documents to WikiLeaks and the media played little role in the debate. The conventional wisdom is that those documents didn't disclose anything that wasn't already known or couldn't reasonably been guessed. As Obama put it, the "documents don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on Afghanistan." In any case, support among Democrats had been softening before the release.
Obama asked for the emergency money, which also includes funds for disaster relief, benefits for veterans exposed to Agent Orange and some foreign aid programs, in February. The Senate approved the money early this month.
But the House, in part to entice wavering liberals, added $20 billion in student aid and funds to retain teachers facing layoffs. The Senate, newly antsy over heavy spending, refused to go along. The bill failed a procedural vote, 46 to 51, failing to get even a simple majority, let alone the 60 votes necessary to shut off the inevitable filibuster. Shorn of the $20 billion, the bill passed by voice vote.
The House leadership was now in a corner. It had to pass the pared-down measure; the Pentagon had said it would begin running out of money for the troops in Afghanistan around Aug. 7 when the House would be gone for summer recess, not to return until after Labor Day.
But one way or another the bill was going to pass. Support may be dwindling, but a telling indicator was the vote on a resolution by Reps. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Ron Paul, R-Texas, calling on Obama to begin an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan.
It failed 38 to 372. As always, the lawmakers are extremely leery of crossing a president during wartime.
