Published: May 21, 2008 11:49 am         

Editorial: War bill shouldn’t be loaded up

Editorial: War bill shouldn’t be loaded up





Opinion: The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.





It appears Democratic Party leadership in the U.S. Senate is up to political hijinks again, loading all kinds of unrelated spending into a war funding bill.





Average Americans have come to accept this as business but usual, but it still doesn’t make it right. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Senate began debate on President Bush’s war funding bill with a “grab bag of domestic programs” including heating aid, immigrant farm worker permits, and unemployment benefits.



These programs, along with new funding for the GI Bill, may have their merits on their own, but they shouldn’t be included in a bill to fund critical war needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.



Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said he wants to set up two separate votes, one on non-war funding provisions and then one on war funding itself. This mainly serves the political purposes of his caucus in an election year but doesn’t serve very well the interests of the taxpayers, or soldiers for that matter.



The Republican caucus is not blameless in this unfortunate game. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, is on board with getting work permits extended to help shore up the shortage of immigrant farm workers in his state.



Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, also added $100 million to the bill to help local law enforcement fight drug trafficking at the border.



President Bush has promised to veto a weighed-down bill, and we suspect that is just fine with Democrats. It offers them another half-truth to peddle during the election.



The president has requested $165 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Senate has added $28 billion for the next two years and another $50 billion for veterans benefits during the next 10 years.



This will likely be the only appropriations bill voted on before the election, so it has been seen by Democrats and Republicans in the Senate as a last chance to say they are for or against funding. Most will be looking for ways to say they spent money for the good of the taxpayer.



GI Benefits and other things that benefit veterans would not be so far off the topic of this bill, but other add-ons border on the ridiculous. There’s money for tracking down child predators ($50 million), $400 million for rural schools and $350 million to fight wildfires. All good causes in themselves, but also usually dealt with in more appropriate, less politically motivated bills.



Republicans expect to vote for the add-ons and then sustain the president’s veto so the Senate can get to the real funding bill, Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell told The Associated Press.



That’s a strategy that seems to work for both sides. In the meantime, soldiers and their families are waiting needlessly to have their funding approved.