TEHRAN — Four Democratic senators said Thursday they will vote against any short-term spending bill that leaves President Donald Trump free to keep paying for the war on Iran, turning the December 11 funding deadline into the first real test of whether Congress will cut off a war it never authorized.
Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Bernie Sanders of Vermont want language in the stopgap barring the administration from using appropriated money on the conflict.
“We intend to fund the government and stop funds for this war,” they said. Their statement listed higher prices for gas, groceries and fertilizer, more than 20 American service members killed and hundreds wounded, and none of Trump’s stated goals achieved.
Democrats won the House and at least 54 Senate seats on Nov. 3, and Vice President JD Vance has since written that Republicans lost because of the war. Trump called that “largely true,” then said “he would do it all again.”
Vance’s own list of causes included the American relationship with Israel. A Chicago Council survey found 68 percent of Americans think the war has not been worth its costs, and its polling put American feelings toward Israel at their lowest point since 1978.
The bill keeps growing. The Pentagon put the war’s cost at $47.1 billion by mid-October. Trump now wants Senate Republicans to pass a $350 billion defense package through reconciliation, and some of them are balking.
Rand Paul called funding the war after that electoral defeat tone deaf. Mike Rounds said the push would “absolutely” raise the risk of a shutdown.
Democrats are not united either. A stopgap needs 60 votes, and Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on Appropriations, says Democrats will not accept supplemental money for the war, though she also favors a short bill that carries government into next year.
Sen. Tim Kaine is drafting his own cutoff language. Van Hollen, who announced Thursday that he will challenge Chuck Schumer for party leader, has suggested Schumer has not pushed hard enough to use the power of the purse. Sanders backs his bid.
Republicans say let them try. Sen. John Kennedy said that if Democrats make funding contingent on “cutting and running,” there will be a shutdown.
Backers of a cutoff point to 1973, when Congress ended funding for U.S. combat in Indochina through a spending provision.
The campaign of aggression against Iran shows no sign of ending. Trump promised four to five weeks in the spring. It is now in its ninth month, and he says it ends “when I say it ends.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: tehrantimes.com
