Travesty on the Potomac: Bill Shortchanges Troops

By E M Barner | Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | Policy

Last night, JR blogged about the hardline Democrat majority’s approach to passing their legislation: shutting the minority out the process appears to be the name of the game. Politics is a rough sport, we all know that. But, a sport is supposed to be, well, sportsmanlike - and all the more so when the arena is the people’s House in the world’s longest continuing Democratic-Republic.

The tactics used by the Democratic majority last night were deplorable. Some have said “turn about’s fair play” but, really, when was the last time a Republican majority cut off debate so high-handidly? Is it not enough to be able to work your legislative will by the numbers? Do you have to also deny the loyal opposition an opportunity to be heard – to debate your ideas and theirs on the merits?

More to the point, why exactly did the majority feel the need to squelch debate last night? Remember, a little over a week ago, I blogged about the Democrat leadership’s difficulty with this bill. The Senate loaded up the War Supplemental with $108 billion IMF bailout, requested by the administration. And, then, it took Pelosi & Hoyer twelve days to whip the vote on this monstrosity. Their base was queasy about it. Cantor was pounding them for using taxpayer dollars to bail out state sponsors of terrorism – see his letter to House Democrat leaders here. On the floor, letter recipient Steny Hoyer even grants Cantor’s point. Seriously, this is a 16 second gem of a clip. He actually acknowledges that your taxpayer dollars could go to prop up a dictator in Venezuala or Iran.

So, did Democrats stand on the courage of their convictions and make an argument to the American people and their fellow members as to why they cut funding for the troops in order to bail out the International Monetary Fund? No! They cut off debate rather than risk tough votes on sensible Republican amendments. The result? HR 2346 passed 226 – 202.

Congressman Rob Whitman accused Speaker Pelosi of playing partisan games with troop funding and explained his “NO” vote:

“I cannot in good conscience support a version of this bill that cuts $4.6 billion from original troop funding levels and holds the remainder hostage in order to bailout foreign governments or help buy up old gas guzzling cars. Our service members deserve better from this Congress,”

I agree. Kudos to Wittman and the other GOP members who took a tough vote on this bill – without even having the opportunity to get an up or down vote on their own amendments.

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