Ryan ChartrandLast week, House and Senate Democrats betrayed the American people.
They gave one of the most unpopular presidents in history a blank check to continue one of the most unpopular wars in history. In doing so, they kicked dirt in the face of every American that voted for a new direction last November. It was one of the clearest mandates in history – the American people wanted out of Iraq, and they thought Democrats were the ones to do it. What they got was nothing but lies and grandstanding.
What may be even worse than the fact that this Capitulation Bill was sent to the president was the underhanded attempt by Democratic leadership to obscure the vote on this bill. Every bill debated in Congress is accompanied by a rule dictating the terms of that debate. By locking the core terms of the Capitulation Bill in the rule itself and only allowing blank check amendments during actual debate, Democratic leadership gave their rank-and-file members a chance to vote against the actual bill – while actually supporting it in a complex procedural vote. As such, 216 congressional Democrats voted for the rule that allowed this bill to proceed – 216 Democrats that kicked in the teeth of every American who voted against President Bush’s war in the 2006 elections.
In the meantime, Democratic leaders like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have the nerve to insist that the bill sent to the president is somehow an improvement. The bill contains benchmarks for success in Iraq, Reid swears, that are a vast improvement over the blind funding that President Bush received from the previous Republican Congress. What Reid fails to mention is that these benchmarks are completely voluntary – there is absolutely nothing in the bill that forces President Bush to stop the war that has cost so many American lives and half a billion dollars.
No, Reid, this bill is not an improvement. It is a tragic, disgusting piece of political cowardice perpetuated by the Democratic leadership. What exactly do Democrats fear by stopping a war opposed by 70 percent of the American people? What exactly do they fear by standing up to a president supported by only 28 percent of those same Americans? George Bush is irrelevant. The American people have abandoned him. And by giving him a blank check to continue this orgy of lost American soldiers, congressional Democrats will soon find themselves abandoned as well.
One of the most ludicrous elements of the debate over ending the quagmire in Iraq is the concept that any bill that calls for withdrawal of U.S. troops is nothing but “defunding,” and that American troops in a vicious fire fight outside Ramadi will simply run out of bullets or gas for their Humvees. There has not been a single piece of legislation that has called for a discontinuation of funding for American troops. Legislation like the Feingold-Reid bill that was defeated in the Senate recently called for a fully funded withdrawal of all U.S. troops by March 31st, 2008. To see Democratic legislators adopt the inaccurate right-wing frame of “defunding” when they explained why they voted against this legislation, and then justify their vote on the blank check submitted last week was sickening.
American voters will not forget the events of the last week for a long time. If anything, this was the biggest moment in Congress regarding the war since it was first authorized in 2003. It was the day when congressional Democrats took the mandate that gave them the majority in both houses of Congress and ran it through a paper shredder. It was the day when Democrats continued the war they promised they would end, and in doing so ignored the will of the American people.
Zach Austin is a political science junior and Mustang Daily political columnist.