WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats prepared Wednesday for major concessions on Iraq war funding, tax policies, general spending and energy, because they could not overcome vetoes by President Bush.
The setbacks are a stinging disappointment for Democrats, who took control of the House and Senate with narrow majorities this year but never found a formula for coaxing compromises from Bush and his GOP supporters. Republicans blame Democratic hubris, but both sides agree on one thing: Voters will have a clear choice in 2008 on how Congress should be run.
The pain is deepest in the House. Many Democrats hoped to wind down the Iraq war, greatly expand children’s health insurance, promote renewable fuel use and curb deficit spending, mostly by raising taxes on some groups while cutting taxes elsewhere.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrats have done all they can. “We were not elected to do what the president tells us to do,” Hoyer said. But acknowledging political realities, he added: “If he vetoes and we can’t override the veto, then we have to go in some other direction.”
In every case, Bush’s veto powers or senators’ filibuster powers have forced Democrats to retreat. Ending a filibuster requires 60 votes in the Senate and overriding a veto requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, margins the Democrats have not been able to muster on these issues.
The magnitude of the concessions became clearer Wednesday, but some details will not be known until next week.
On overall government spending, which must be resolved before the year-end recess, Democrats largely yielded to Bush’s demands. Democrats wanted to add $22 billion for various programs to Bush’s $933 billion plan for the one-third of the budget that is passed each year by Congress in appropriations bills.
The effort dissolved Wednesday, when Democratic negotiators tentatively agreed to come down to Bush’s figure, except for adding an extra $3.5 billion for veterans health care. House GOP Whip Roy Blunt called that a gimmick to get around Bush’s budget cap and said Republicans would oppose the move, but Democrats predicted they could prevail in the maneuver.
The fate of about $7 billion in so-called emergency spending that includes many items — such as enhanced border security — supported by Republicans remained up in the air.
While barely able to budge Bush on the overall spending target, Democrats vowed to protect their priorities as much as possible.
On energy, House Democrats acknowledged they cannot overcome Senate opposition to an effort to require more use of wind and other renewable energy in generating electricity.
Similarly, House leaders conceded they have little hope of forcing the Senate to accept new taxes on targeted investors. The proposed increases, blocked by Senate Republicans, were meant to offset the cost of protecting many middle class taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax for one year.
The bitterest pill for House Democrats is their continued inability to force U.S. troop withdrawals in exchange for continued funding of the Iraq war. Final details were undecided Wednesday, but top Democrats said the administration will get a significant portion of its war spending request, with no strings attached.
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