Bush war request quickly figures into spending fracas

President Bush's request for an additional $45.9 billion in emergency funds for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- bringing this year's tab to $196.4 billion -- roiled Capitol Hill Monday, as Democrats tied the request to Bush's opposition to their relatively smaller proposed domestic budget increases.

Transmittal of the amended war-funding request came as the Senate moved toward final passage of a $152 billion Labor-Health and Human Services spending bill, which is $11 billion more than Bush wants for education, health, social services and job-training programs.

Bush said he will veto the bill, and Democrats sense a political opening in the same vein as his veto this month of a $35 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Added spending in the Labor-HHS bill represents about half of the roughly $22 billion difference between Bush's budget request and Democratic appropriations bills.

"It's amazing to me that the president expects to be taken seriously when he says we cannot afford $20 billion in investments in education, health, law enforcement and science, which will make this country stronger over the long term, but he doesn't blink an eye at asking to borrow $200 billion for a policy in Iraq that leaves us six months from now exactly where we were six months ago," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said in a statement.

The war-spending request comes on top of the $459.6 billion base Pentagon budget that is being negotiated by House and Senate appropriators.

Obey and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have made clear they have no intention of considering the added war funds this year; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., have been less adamant, but their statements Monday appear to hint toward delay as well.

"We're going to get to this supplemental appropriation bill, but we're not going to be in a rush to do that," Reid said Monday.

"I plan to proceed very carefully. Every line-item will be scrutinized. Hearings will be held to determine the need for this spending request," Byrd said in a statement.

In announcing the additions Monday, Bush called on Congress to promptly approve the request. "Congress should not go home for the holidays while our troops are still waiting for the funds they need," he said, a theme echoed by congressional Republicans on an almost daily basis.

Particularly in light of the Democrats' decision to first send Bush the Labor-HHS measure, Republicans argue Democrats are delaying funds for the troops and veterans for political reasons.

Democrats say they will provide stopgap funding for military operations -- as much as $70 billion is under discussion -- as part of a "bridge fund" attached to the base Defense bill.

Reid said the regular Pentagon funding should contain enough funds to "tide them over for a while."

But the Pentagon bill might also wind up being used as a bargaining chip in the battle over domestic spending, and Reid refused to rule out attaching other appropriations measures.

Democrats have made no promises about keeping unrelated spending off of a separate bill funding the Veterans Affairs Department. Bush also demanded that Congress swiftly approve those bills, and keep them "clean" in the process.

Details of Bush's amended request might also provide fodder for Democrats.

Included within the State Department portion are a number of infrastructure and economic development projects. The projects include as $50 million to build a road from Kabul, Afghanistan, to that country's Bamiyan province, $115 million to supply electric power to Kabul and $25 million to help jump-start Iraq's private-sector economy. Democrats are arguing that Bush is pushing for such projects abroad while shorting them at home.

At the same time, the scope of the initial request has been expanded beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, to encompass funding for an ambitious anti-drug partnership with the Mexican government, reward North Korea for cooperation in multiparty talks about dismantling its nuclear weapons program, Darfur peacekeeping, and aid to the Palestinian government in the West Bank.

That too could provide Democrats with an impetus to advocate for unrelated funding of their own design.