Democrats gun for Bush and his $87 billion

Backed by new polls showing a wary public, Democrats are launching a multifront battle over President Bush's $87 billion request for troop support and reconstruction funding in Iraq.

No one doubts that the package will ultimately pass. Even Democrats who once opposed the war now say that American troops deserve full support from Congress - in some cases even more than the White House wants.

But the questioning before the vote gives Democrats their best platform to probe the Bush team on everything from the quality of its postwar planning to the basic fairness of the tax system that pays for it.

"This is an enormous issue for Demo-crats, both in the Congress and on the campaign trail," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Sabato says: "Most Americans now think the war wasn't worth it. They think the deaths were pointless. This is a stunning turnaround, and it's an accumulation of all this information that the public has gathered - that there were not weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq], that we're getting bogged down in a guerrilla war, plus the $87 billion we can't afford, that has turned a plurality against the war."

Democrats aim to use the debate over how to pay for that war to focus a bright light on all these concerns, as well as on the competence of the Bush administration to deal with them. Even before the president sent details of his proposal to Congress on Wednesday, members were floating ideas on how to respond to it. With many members of Congress rushing to airports in advance of hurricane Isabel, it was not clear which approach enjoyed the most support.

One of the first targets for Democrats will be the Bush tax cuts. This week, Sen. Joseph Biden (D) of Delaware - one of the strongest backers of war in Iraq - proposed covering the $87 billion by scaling back tax cuts for the top 1 percent of American taxpayers. That would include taxpayers earning more than $360,000 a year.

"I am hopeful by the end of this appropriations process we will have funds to pay for it with the tax cut," he says, citing a recent poll that 51 percent of Americans back repealing the tax cut to pay for the war.

Senator Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, says he has "vast support" within the Democratic caucus for this proposal. "The president has a great opportunity to not pass this burden along to our children," he adds.

Still, any bid to pay for the war by rolling back the tax cut faces a certain presidential veto, something Demo-crats concede they do not have the votes to override.

Even Republicans who opposed the tax cuts are reluctant to see them phased out before their time.

Page: 1 | 2