Washington – Vice President Dick Cheney says he is “willing to bet” that Democratic lawmakers will back down and approve a war-spending bill that doesn’t call for U.S. troops to leave Iraq. Top Democratic leaders shot back that Cheney has lost all public credibility.
Cheney said Congress will end up passing a “clean” bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without any troop- withdrawal timetables. Democrats control Congress, but they do not appear to have the votes to override a presidential veto.
“They will not leave the troops in the field without the resources they need,” Cheney said of the Democrats.
Asked what would happen if they don’t back down, Cheney said: “I’m willing to bet the other way – that, in fact, they will.”
“There may be some people who are so irresponsible that they wouldn’t support that,” Cheney said, but the majority will send Bush the bill he wants “once they’ve gone through the exercise and it’s clear the president will veto the provisions that they want in.”
However, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s chairman said Congress won’t relent in winding down the war.
“We are very, very serious about what the American people said in November,” said Carl Levin, D-Mich., referring to the election that put Democrats in charge of Congress. “They want a change of course.”
Cheney’s interview, taped Saturday, was on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Levin spoke on “Fox News Sunday.”
