Will House Democrats Oppose a Jobless War Supplemental?
Sunday 25 July 2010
by: Robert Naiman, t r u t h o u t | Report
(Photo: The U.S. Army; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)
The war supplemental for Afghanistan is expected to come back from the Senate to the House this week - without any kind of timetable for military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and without money to save teachers' jobs attached.
AP reports:
In a take-it-or-leave-it gesture, the Senate voted Thursday night to reject more than $20 billion in domestic spending the House had tacked on to its $60 billion bill to fund President Barack Obama's troop surge in Afghanistan.
[...]
The moves repel a long-shot bid by House Democrats earlier this month to resurrect their faltering jobs agenda with $10 billion in grants to school districts to avoid teacher layoffs, $5 billion for Pell Grants to low-income college students, $1 billion for a summer jobs program and $700 million to improve security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Labor unions had strongly backed the House Democratic effort to attach money to the supplemental, to boost employment and avoid teacher layoffs. Will these unions now urge House Democrats to vote no on any jobless war supplemental?
Few expect that the House, in a freestanding vote this week, will reject the $33 billion request for the Afghanistan war, since until now there has been a solid block of more than 90 percent of House Republicans committed to voting yes on what they would consider a "relatively clean" war supplemental.
But what is in serious dispute is how many House Democrats will vote no on a jobless war supplemental. A large Democratic no vote would send a strong signal to the White House of House Democratic impatience with a blank checkbook for endless and fruitless war, while the administration insists that there is no money to save jobs at home, at a time of nearly 10 percent measured unemployment. A large Democratic no vote would also send a powerful signal of Democratic "no confidence" in the Pentagon's war plans, increasing pressure on the administration to vigorously pursue a political resolution to the conflict and to establish a timetable for military withdrawal - as desired by the majority of Americans and three-quarters of Democrats, according to a recent CBS poll.
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Labor advocates and the majority of House Democrats now have two solid reasons to support a no vote. First, their efforts to add money to save jobs at home have been rejected by the Senate - with White House approval. Second, there is no timetable for military withdrawal embedded in the legislation - not even the July 2011 beginning of a drawdown that President Obama promised last year but which General Petraeus is now doing his best to undermine.
Sixty percent of House Democrats voted on July 1 to require President Obama to establish a timetable for withdrawal.
And increasingly, labor unions are turning explicitly against the war.
On July 11, the American Federation of Teachers, meeting at their national convention in Seattle, adopted a resolution calling for:
"an end to our current open-ended military involvement in Afghanistan, with a specific timetable for the rapid, orderly withdrawal of all armed forces and military contractors from Afghanistan, to begin immediately."
United Auto Workers President Bob King and Rainbow PUSH leader Jesse Jackson have announced that a march in Detroit on Aug. 28, the 47th anniversary of King's 1963 march on Washington, will kick off a campaign to to rebuild the nation's cities, provide jobs and education, enact a moratorium on foreclosures and end the wars in the Middle East [my emphasis].
The Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Vermont state AFL-CIO labor federations have called for ending the war in Afghanistan, as have the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE).
If you oppose the spending of your tax dollars for more war, make your voice heard. The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) has established a toll-free number that connects you to the Capitol switchboard: 1-888-493-5443, which will transfer you to your Representative's office. If you use this number, it will add to FCNL's count of how many people called Congress against the war supplemental, so your call will be tallied in two places.
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Comments
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Capitalism requires a huge
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 10:39 — radline9 (not verified)Capitalism requires a huge reservoir of out of work people in order to keep wages down. Now the military requires it so they will have more "vollunteers"!
Democrats are finished. The
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 13:06 — Anonymous (not verified)Democrats are finished.
The coming repudiation of our empty suit president, supporter of Blanche Lincoln and Holy Joe Lieberman, along with other Republican clones, will signal the death of "change." Democrats had their chance and they blew it. A wave of ignoramuses will take office, driving down our collective IQ, undermining social programs, and adopting policies almost certain to make a "double dip" recession look good in retrospect.
Obama, bipartisan bystander, is owned by the power elite. His loss to Mitt Romney in 2012 will be well deserved.
I wish TO and other news
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 13:25 — Anonymous (not verified)I wish TO and other news sources would publish the names of congressoid who voted for or against a measure.
It's difficult as hell for the average reader to extract a roll call of names from "Thomas" -- the snakes and ladders index system that passes for "sunlight" at the US Government legislative data base.
TO and other news sources should always publish a list of which congresswhore voted for/against what bill
sure.
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 13:49 — Anonymous (not verified)sure.
Our war machine is not a
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 14:00 — AngryMan (not verified)Our war machine is not a jobs program. What "war" has the US won since the end of WWII? None. For 60+ years we keep warring against others and we keep losing. Why do we keep spending so much money and spilling so much blood to lose "wars" that were folly from the outset? Why do we engage in these money vampires when there is no stated purpose for doing what we do? What do we expect to accomplish? This is nothing more than nonstop pork for weapons makers. Can we please stop this?
Before we try to export any more American capitalism, American democracy, American ethics, and American politics, perhaps we should make what we have ... function. If this country were for sale, the ad would read: "corrupt third-world fixer-upper with some potential".
In speaking I am the most profane person I know. In day-to-day speech I drop "F" bombs at the drop of a hat. I swear often enough to make a sailor blush. By those that do not know me, I am asked why I am so profane. I then run down the lengthy list of all the things in this country that are truly profane, by anybody's yardstick. I then ask ... with all that, you are upset that I speak "naughty words" in describing that behavior? Words are not profane ... what this country has done over the last 30 years to human beings and society at-large is profanity of biblical proportion. Should I be ashamed of dropping "F-bombs" while we spend a trillion dollars blowing shit up but have no money to help the victims of the Wall Street banksters? We have no money for an infrastructure rebuild ... really? No money for a Manhattan-scale project for energy independence? You really think my tiny lingual outrage is obscene and what we have done to America is okee-dokee? Are you out of your fvcking mind?
I don't know enough profanity to adequately describe what we do and how we think as a nation. That we could, with a straight face, send more war appropriations sailing through the Senate that only has funding to blow shit up and kill people. Simultaneously, we have no money to help the people we have fvcked over for the last 30 years? My words offend you as being obscene, yet this reality does not? For those people I have only two words ... and the second word is "you".
Have a "nice" day.
Angry man makes a great
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 14:43 — Betrayed by Democrats (not verified)Angry man makes a great point about our 60 year track record for losing imperial wars. I would add that the only thing we learned from Vietnam was not to count the enemy dead.
And we only count the cost of war when we want to cut domestic spending or taxes.
After watching the Senate boot unemployment insurance around like a political football for 4 months, I notice it took them about ten minutes to find 60 billion for a war that can never be won.
So much for fiscal conservatism. Didn't take much to expose the fraud hidden in that pile of sh#t. Let those clowns balance the books on the pentagon's budget. That is, if anyone manages to balance the books in that corporate pork barrel of death.
Their republican-lite economic policies produced - what a surprise - a jobless recovery riding on the back of an out-of-control war machine that floods the world with weapons and kills more people than cancer.
I don't vote for Republicans, even in Democratic drag. These clowns need a royal kicking in November. Nothing less will even penetrate their inbred, private school mentalities.
Its time to return to the streets and take Washington ourselves. Democrats, Republicans, who can tell the difference?
They are nothing but two hopelessly corrupted, graft machines selling us out to their benefactors on K Street, Wall Street and war machine.
No one should vote for either of them.
Angry Man, If only more
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 15:18 — Anonymous (not verified)Angry Man,
If only more people had such a great command of the English Language ! Anyone that is 'offended' by your choice of words to express your anger at the sell-out of this country can all go straight to Hell. People like that are the main reason that we are losing our country, along with the respect of the rest of the world.
Due to that kind of panty-waist mindset of 'see no evil--do no evil' stupid attitude of people that Only get upset about Words..and Not the multitude of sins that this government is committing in all of our names---- is not worth the gunpowder it would take to blow him/her straight ( non-stop at Our expense, without any Layover ) to Hell.
What is truly offensive is allowing this once great nation to be taken over by warmongers and greedy capitalist by a country no bigger than Vermont. Now, that is what is what is truly Offensive.
Votes always reveal where
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 17:23 — Anonymous (not verified)Votes always reveal where our so called "representatives" really stand. 60 billion for more war and not a dime to help keep employed, employ the working people of this country. The people who elect these so called "representatives" and pay the taxes that pay for their salaries, along with their Cadillac retirement and medical plans. It's time for change people, real change that gets rid of incumbents, Democrat and Republican alike.
How funny, the only jobs
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 19:29 — Anonymous (not verified)How funny, the only jobs being created by Congress are the ones where they want our soldiers to go and get shot up for them to further their bragging out job creation . No money for anything but wars and corrupt politicians. Another job well done by the blow hards in Congress. What a greed bunch of evil creatures they have become.
I gave up on living in the
Mon, 07/26/2010 - 00:42 — A Canuck for now (not verified)I gave up on living in the states when Reagan got elected for a second term. Plenty of money for killing Nicaraguans,El Salvadorans,Angolans, the list goes on... No money for school lunch programs,pell grants,scholarships. Bust unions,increase the deficit,demonize the poor,the weak,squeeze the middle class. Things haven't changed much in 30 years. Plenty of money for destroying, little money for teaching and helping. Unfortunately, things are going the same way here in Canada. Harper reads the same Corporate handbook. Where to next? Argentina perhaps.
Politely, congress and the
Mon, 07/26/2010 - 01:52 — Peter White Albion California (not verified)Politely, congress and the so-called leadership of our once proud (?) nation, E S & D. What's with you people? No money for love but plenty for pain... Continually, the message to the people, in the broadest senses of the word, seems to be " Let them eat cake.. GMO cake, Round-Up Ready cake, endless terror cake, anything but good-for-humans cake.... Oh and by the way, send in your money for said same cake that may be doled out to you if you toe the party line. The "just consent of the governed?" Color it all but gone... Where's the logic and payoff in supporting any war, any more?
I would like to see more
Mon, 07/26/2010 - 03:46 — tom (not verified)I would like to see more "Angry Man" posts. The dude has it, spot on. Not a thing wrong or crazy in his post.
I am a realist, not a dreamer (any more) and I have been through it all.
Had a dream/nightmare the other night. That I was on the cutting edge of a "sea change" in our lives here in USA.
Oil spill (volcano, actually). Government collusion to help cover its impact up. Money for senseless, loser wars. Elect someone who talks "change" and then doesn't. No money for jobs. No memory of Vietnam. Support for freaks like Sarah Palin, Tea Party itself, and its "candidates"? Now, Tancredo, and the "Arizona Purge Law" for anyone who isn't white? 13 more states on the same page? Racism never leaves us, right?
Creeps like Boehner, Kyl, Sessions, McConnell, Hatch, Cantor, Specter, Lieberman, DeMint, Bunning, Coulter (and all Fox News, MSM) and (for you Dems) Rangel, Reid, Pelosi, McChrystal, Petraeus, Gibbs, Gates, Dodd, Baucus, and anybody else who sold us little people down the river, including Gore, Spitzer, Edwards, just for their wee-wees' pleasures.
(Add Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, Greenspan, US Supreme Court, Pentagon and its customers, on and on.)
And the "system" rejects decent people like Nader, Kucinich, Sanders, Grayson, Volker, Moyers, Rather, Lehrer, Maddow, Amy Goodman, alternative media, Krugman, Olbermann, etc.
My time should be up. Going to Hawaii, to recharge.
What do you think those
Mon, 07/26/2010 - 04:15 — tom (not verified)What do you think those poor, lonely souls who came over on the Mayflower, or the ones who landed at Jamestown (trivia question: what was the name of their boat?) would think 400+ years later, of their New World?
Killers, 50% budget for wars, no jobs bill (even though Wall Street is doing better than in 2008),
Chemical food, coverup for the oil Volcano, global warming, sending jobs to other countries, genocide bills for the brown people (although that should be nothing new to the colonists -- look at what they did to the Native Americans), letting Jews take over our media, our banks, and our poor, naiive, partying president, and put Hillary and Biden right behind our Dear Leader?
Would McCain and Palin have done any worse (barring cancer death and Hollywood contract offers)?
Our beloved (before) country is now based on money, not democracy. We are now the same as a dictatorship (absolute presidential power, with censorship, thanks to Bush, Cheney, Rice, SCOTUS, Rumsfeld, neo-cons, Murdoch, you name it. )
Our Congress as we knew it, (or were told what it was by our teachers and parents) is gone. In place are the money-grubbers, only keen on getting reelected, or a cushy job if they don't.
I had hope, once, now I am just an apologist, continually excusing our country's behaviours, and asking "Why?" into the night skies.
We are spun down on this planet from somewhere, and told to like it. We don't even get to ask what we would like our name to be,
or anything else, until we rebel, leave home, and make it on our own. It is then, usually too late. Love and sex are the main energy sources, but we are told from birth that Jesus and God are first. Where were those dudes, when Katrina, Bush, Gulf Oil Volcano, slavery, global warming, senseless wars, banks as casinos, etc., have been visited upon us?
Email me, if you want to hear more.
Your turn.
I am glad the money for
Mon, 07/26/2010 - 07:08 — Anonymous (not verified)I am glad the money for teaching is not attached to this bill. I think killing innocents should be a separate budget item from education of people at home. That way you can reject the money for mass murder without compromising education.
In my state, they often combine more money for prisons and more money for the environment, for low cost housing, etc. It is just plain blackmail. In order to get money for what you support, you must vote for tings you oppose, possibly on moral grounds.
It is goddamned blackmail, deceit, and manipulation. I am sick of it.
What if we renamed our
Mon, 07/26/2010 - 17:12 — Sukumar (not verified)What if we renamed our education programs the "War on Ignorance"?