<font color=blue> What a joke! Not only do we have to pay for an unnecessary war but we have to pay to make the Iraqis boo boos okay! I have never in my life seen a more incompetent president and staff. They are all certifiable!
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ted
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CONGRESS
Plan for Iraq to Repay U.S. Aid Is Rejected
By DAVID FIRESTONE
Published: October 30, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 — Congressional negotiators on Wednesday rejected a Senate proposal that would have required Iraq to repay billions in reconstruction aid, ending a brief rebellion against President Bush's $87 billion plan for the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The negotiating committee, with members from both houses, approved a spending plan for Iraq that calls for about $18.6 billion in aid to be given as a gift to Iraq, as President Bush had demanded. The White House, arguing that Iraq is already too burdened with debt, threatened to veto the bill if it included a loan provision, and Republicans on the joint House-Senate conference committee echoed the administration's position.
"If Iraq's economy gets back on track without a huge additional debt load, it could become the model for the future of the Middle East," said Representative Jerry Lewis, Republican of California. "To suggest the way we can help best is by more debt load is absolutely ridiculous.
"It is time for us to recognize that it's in the interest of America to see that Iraq's economy does well," Mr. Lewis said, "because it will produce benefits for us that will last for generations to come."
Democrats argued that Iraq was well equipped to pay its debts, and noted that the federal government would have to increase its own record-setting debts to provide the aid.
"We believe Iraq can pay its own way," said Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland. "It will add to their national dignity, and it will show that they're ready to enter the world. And quite frankly, our people have sticker shock — they do not want to this be a grant, they want this to be a loan."
But the Democrats on the committee lost the support of two Republican colleagues who had voted for the loan in the Senate earlier this month, Sam Brownback of Kansas and Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado. Once senators on the committee voted 16 to 13 against the loans on Wednesday afternoon, the provision was permanently dropped from the bill, and neither chamber will be able to restore it when they vote on the measure later this week. The legislation will then go to the president for his signature.
However, in approving a compromise bill, the committee did not give President Bush precisely what he had requested in September. The conference cut about $1.7 billion from the administration's original request for $20.3 billion in rebuilding aid, mostly for projects the committee members considered unnecessary, such as housing developments, a ZIP code program, garbage trucks and new prisons.
And, in a slap at what critics see as the administration's reluctance to share information about Iraq with Congress, Republicans joined Democrats in adding several watchdog provisions to the bill, adjustments that demonstrated unease with the administration's desire to spend taxpayer money freely in Iraq. One powerful Republican on the committee openly accused the administration of arrogance.
"There are a lot of people here who have tried to be a strong supporter of this administration, doing everything they possibly could," said Representative Frank R. Wolf, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee for the Commerce and Justice Departments. "But you bump up against a degree of arrogance over and over again."
Mr. Wolf added: "I want the president to do well, but it's important that you be open when members of Congress on either side, on either party, try to get information. Pride goeth before the fall."
Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska and chairman of the Appropriations Committee, seconded the spirit of Mr. Wolf's remarks, criticizing L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator in Iraq, for declining to meet with him and other Congressional leaders this week.
The conference committee approved a proposal by Mr. Stevens to create an inspector general to watch over spending by Mr. Bremer's authority in Iraq, one of more than a dozen new oversight requirements added by both chambers to the $87 billion bill.
Over the administration's objections, the committee also improved health care benefits for military reservists and National Guard members who are unemployed or do not have a company health care plan. The improved benefits would also extend the benefits to reservists and Guard members for six months after they return from active duty. The administration said the plan was too expensive.
The committee rejected a Democratic proposal to require the Senate to confirm the administrator in Iraq. Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, argued that Mr. Bremer controlled a budget larger than that of nearly half the cabinet agencies, but said the Senate has no role in his selection and insufficient oversight of his actions. |
