So where's the "Marshal Plan" for American citizens?

[Le Jacquelope]

How about $872 more in aid for every American citizen, instead of the Iraqis? We need it more than them.......

House Passes $87B Iraq, Afghanistan Bill

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The House, putting concerns for the U. S. troops ahead of questions about administration postwar policies, passed by a comfortable margin legislation granting President Bush (news - web sites)'s request for $87 billion for operations in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites).

The Senate was set to approve the package later Friday, following two weeks of debate, and Bush could have it on his desk by late next week. The House vote was 303-125.

Both houses generally acceded to the White House's spending blueprint with one major exception: the Senate on Thursday defied strong administration pressure and voted to require Iraq to eventually repay half of $20.3 billion set aside for its reconstruction. The House, in a similar vote, narrowly sided with the administration on the loan issue.

House GOP leaders pushed the measure to a final vote Friday over the objections of Democrats who said they still had more than 100 amendments they wanted to offer.

"This is the exactly the moment when this House should step forward, when the country should step forward to show we have a commitment that will not stop," House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said.

Democrats, while supportive of the $66 billion in the package to pay for American military operations, took issue with the $18.6 billion in the House bill for restoring economic stability to Iraq.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said that amounted to $872 for every person in Iraq, an investment that deserved more debate. "What a lousy example you are setting for the Iraqis," he said to Republicans.

The House earlier Friday accepted an amendment by Reps. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., and Dennis Moore, D-Kan., shifting $98 million from Iraq reconstruction to help troops on leave pay for their trips home.

For the first time since the Vietnam War, the military is giving service members with 12 months in the field in Iraq or Afghanistan a 15-day home leave. But after flying into the port of entry in this country, they must pay for the rest of their trip out of their own pockets and are "too often stranded at the airport, no where near their homes or families," Ramstad said. The Senate approved similar language early in its debate.

The president and his top aides, including Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) and Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), pressed lawmakers to make all reconstruction money grants rather than loans. They argued that loans would worsen Iraq's foreign debt and undermine efforts to get other nations to forgive their outstanding loans to Iraq.

"Iraq is burdened by past debts," Deputy State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli said Friday. "Now is not the time to add the burden of new debts."

"I've never seen the secretary of state as engaged as he was on this issue," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who supported the administration stance.

"There was just some very sharp elbows thrown by administration officials" on the loan issue, said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who unsuccessfully tried to move a loan amendment in the House.

But the administration was confronted by lawmakers who said constituents were disturbed by the idea that the United States, while racking up record federal deficits, was giving billions in aid to a nation sitting on the second largest oil reserves in the world.

"It was very difficult to stop this train because it made so much sense," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, one of eight Republicans who voted for the loan amendment, which passed 51-47 Thursday.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said the vote sent a strong message to the Bush administration that "it must do more to ensure that America's troops and taxpayers don't have to go on shouldering this costly burden virtually alone."

By a mostly party-line 55-44 vote Friday, the Senate rejected an amendment by Daschle, D-S.D., barring future U.S. aid to Iraq — beyond the money in the current bill — unless Bush certifies that foreign countries' contributions equal those by the United States



In the House, Democrats David Obey of Wisconsin and Tom Lantos of California sought to convert half the $18.6 billion in the House bill for reconstruction, but lost, 226-200.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., promised to work hard to remove the loan provision when House and Senate negotiators meet, probably next week, to decide on the final version they will send to the president.

The goal is to get the bill on the president's desk before next week's conference of donor nations in Madrid, Spain.

But Frist acknowledged that "back home, people were asking for loans. ... It was very divided, very close, and that probably reflects feelings around the country."

There was little controversy over the bulk of the emergency spending package, $66 billion to sustain U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Debate centered on the money to restore economic and political stability in Iraq, which in the House bill included $793 million for health care programs, $2.8 billion for potable drinking water, $217 million for border security, $5.65 billion for electricity generation and $2.1 billion to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure.

Supporters argued that the quick creation of a stable, prosperous Iraq was in America's national interest. "Reconstruction money is defense spending. It is war spending and it is homeland security spending," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said.

Under the Senate loan amendment, the $10 billion in loans would be transformed into a grant if other countries agreed to forgive at least 90 percent of the debt they were owed by Iraq. That debt is usually estimated at between $90 billion and $127 billion.

The loan proposal was the most significant change lawmakers have made in the mammoth spending package that the president proposed on Sept. 7

 

[REDWAVE]

Slush fund

Much of that money will go to enrich Bechtel, Halliburton, and other war profiteers.