WASHINGTON — The Democratic-led House on Thursday rejected more funds to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as many Republicans angry over the majority party’s tactics sat out the vote. It did approve more money for the jobless and an expansion of GI education benefits.
In a rapid series of votes on the war-funding bill and accompanying components, Republicans withheld their votes in protest, leading to the defeat of the Iraq funding legislation by a 149-141 tally. Nearly two-thirds of the House’s Democrats voted against continuing to fund the war.
Democrats then forced through a nonbinding plan seeking an exit from Iraq by December of next year by a 224-196 vote that broke along party lines.
Thirty-two Republicans joined with Democrats on a 256-166 vote to sharply boost education benefits for Iraq-Afghanistan veterans under the GI Bill — despite an accompanying tax surcharge on the wealthy and small businesses — and voted to provide a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits.
The White House weighed in again Thursday with a promise to veto the bill over the non-war spending, the new tax surcharge and restrictions on President Bush’s ability to conduct the war in Iraq.
A total of 132 Republicans withheld their votes for the troops funding bill in protest, saying the strategy by Democrats to load the war funding measure with unrelated provisions would unnecessarily delay getting funding to troops in the field.
“We’re playing political games on the backs of our troops — you know it,” said Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. “All this bill’s going to do is delay the process for weeks and weeks and weeks while we play political games.”
The GOP protest kills the war funding for now, but it’ll be revived next week in the Senate.
House action on the bill was the first act in a complicated legislative dance that promises to spill over into June, when the Pentagon will have to send out warnings of possible furloughs to civilian employees and contract workers.
Democrats engineered the three-vote minuet to allow anti-war liberals to vote against funding the Iraq war. Republicans said the whole exercise was a waste of time, given Bush’s veto promise.
The add-ons for the unemployed and the new college benefits under the GI Bill represented the price demanded by Democrats for approving Bush’s long-stalled request for additional war funding.
The new GI Bill essentially would guarantee a full scholarship at any in-state public university, along with a monthly housing stipend, for people who serve in the military for at least three years. It is aimed at replicating the benefits awarded veterans of World War II and would cost $52 billion over 10 years.
To pay for it and adhere to budget rules requiring new benefit programs not add to the deficit, the Democratic plan would impose a surtax on individuals with incomes above $500,000. Couples would pay the tax on income exceeding $1 million.
