| Washington, DC –
Today, the House passed an emergency supplemental spending bill for the war in Iraq filled with confusing timetables and benchmarks as well as upwards of $20 billion in pork barrel spending. Congressman Bill Shuster released the following statement upon passage of this legislation:
“Today, the Democrat Majority in the House forced through legislation full of broken promises to our troops as well as the America’s voters.
Unable to gain enough support within their party to bring their withdrawal plan to the floor, Democrat leadership loaded their bill with over $20 billion in projects designed to buy the votes of hesitant members of their party who don’t support the idea of a retreat from the War on Terror.
Flying in the face of their own campaign promises to end wasteful spending, Speaker Pelosi and her leadership team have loaded this war time emergency spending bill with pointless pork projects that will be paid for by Pennsylvania’s tax payers.
Instead of working together to pass a clean bill to fund our troops in the field, Democrats attached reams of red tape in the form of confusing benchmarks, and timetables that will tie the hands of our commanders and put our troops in danger of losing the funding they need to fight the enemy and protect themselves.
I, along with many Americans believe that the war in Iraq must come to an end soon. However, I disagree with many of my Democrat colleagues on a very important point; an end to this war must not arrive through retreat.
The Washington Post put it best when they said that this bill is ‘an attempt to impose detailed management on a war without regard for the war itself.’ Thinking that by setting an arbitrary timetable for our withdrawal will make Iraq secure is flawed logic. Instead of leaving Iraq strong, this plan will only give our enemies a blueprint to follow and the time they need to melt back into the shadows long enough to wreak havoc once we’re gone.
The Democrats today have Vietnamized the war in Iraq. America learned a hard lesson in Vietnam that the generals, not the politicians should manage our wars. Unfortunately, the Democrats in the House have forgotten the lessons of the past and in doing so are doomed to repeat them.” |
