WASHINGTON – President Bush on Tuesday invited lawmakers to the White House next week to try to break the stalemate on Iraq war funding but made clear that he is not budging on his key demand – a “clean” bill that has no “artificial deadlines” for withdrawal and that places no restrictions on his commanders on the ground.
At the same time, Bush used a morning visit to American Legion Post 177 in Fairfax, Va., to renew pressure on Congress to send him the spending bill, warning that the Pentagon will soon be forced to transfer another $1.6 billion in funds from other military accounts to make up for a looming shortfall in funding for Iraq operations. The appearance was another in a series of steps calculated at stiffening spines in his conservative base for a coming confrontation with Democratic lawmakers.
“Democratic leaders in Congress are bent on using a bill that funds our troops to make a political statement about the war,” Bush told the audience.
Democratic leaders reacted coolly to the latest mix of overture and threat from the president, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggesting they would not attend the White House meeting unless Bush drops what they consider to be his preconditions.
“I’ve prided myself on being a pretty good trial lawyer,” Reid said. “I’ve settled lots and lots of cases. But you never settle a case going in saying, ‘You can come and meet with me, but here’s what the result’s going to be before we meet.’ That doesn’t work.”
The standoff between Bush and Congress involves about $100 million in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each chamber has approved a bill providing the funding, but the two bills also, in essence, call for shutting down the war in Iraq through timetables for withdrawal. The House bill calls for all combat troops to be removed by Aug. 31, 2008, while the Senate bill calls for withdrawals to begin 120 days after passage of the bill, with a goal of pulling all troops out by March 31, 2008.
Bush has said he would veto either bill – the two chambers first must reconcile their differences and send the legislation to his desk – and is calculating that he can keep enough Republicans in line to prevent the Democrats from assembling the two-thirds majority they need in both chambers to override a veto.
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