More troops headed for Iraq?
President Bush wants to send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq, but Democrats in Congress hope to block the White House plan by tying up the purse strings. John Dimsdale reports.
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SCOTT JAGOW: Tonight President Bush speaks to the country about Iraq. He’s expected to ask for about 20,000 more troops over there. Bush has already been talking to Congress about this and as you can imagine, there’s quite a bit of resistance. More now from John Dimsdale.
JOHN DIMSDALE: Massachusetts Democrat, Senator Edward Kennedy, wants to withhold federal funds for sending additional troops to Iraq.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: We are exercising the power of the purse when we’re saying the president ought to come back to the Congress and justify an increase in the escalation of the war.
President Bush will be asking Congress for additional money for the Iraq war in a few weeks… and Senator Kennedy was asked why he doesn’t just wait until then.
KENNEDY: The horse will be out of barn by the time we get there. We’re gonna get the appropriation request probably end of January, early February. It’ll take six to eight weeks for Congress to act. By that time the troops will already be there.
Democrats, like Republicans, are split over whether Congress has the constitutional power to block the President’s move. But Congress has withheld money before for troops in Vietnam and Lebanon.
In Washington, I’m John Dimsdale for Marketplace.