[NYTr] Bush War Funding: White House Piles on the Pressure with Congress

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com


Iraq Keeps Bush, Congress at Odds

Washington, Nov 30 (Prensa Latina) US President George W. Bush and the
Congress are still at odds over the approval of funds for the continued
occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The multimillion sum requested by the White House for those wars
unleashed a tiff between both powers.

Bush renewed his pressures on the Capitol on Thursday, urging
legislators to approve $196 billion for both conflicts before Christmas.

That fund will allow the Pentagon to defray operations in the two Arab
countries for three-months into 2008.

ó The delay of that fund will force the Department of Defense to
dismiss civil workers, cancel contracts, and prepare our military bases
across the country so that they reduce operations, ó said Bush.

According to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, 100,000 officials from
that department, as well as a same number of contractors could be laid
off early next year.

The democrats' refusal to approve more money for the war unless
President Bush presents a schedule for the military withdrawal from
Iraq has ignited tension between the two powers.

The House of Representatives approved a project cutting the funds for
the Army, by only granting 50 billion dollars for the conflicts in Iraq
and Afghanistan, 146 billion dollars less than what the Executive
requested.

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Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles

Bush Pressures Congress to Approve War Funding

Havana, Nov 30 (acn) The White House and Pentagon stepped up their 
pressure on Congress Thursday to obtain more funding for the wars 
against Iraq and Afghanistan, putting a limit on the Democratic Party 
controlled legislature to make the appropriation before the Christmas 
recess.

President Bush wants Congress to approve $178 billion US to cover 
operations until the third quarter of 2008. If not approved, the army 
will start running out of funds in February.

The president added his warning to one voiced last week by Defense 
Secretary Robert Gates who alerted to what would happen if Congress 
doesn't approve the money. "Secretary Gates has directed the Army and 
Marine Corps to develop a plan to lay off civilian employees, to 
terminate contracts and to prepare our military bases across the 
country for reduced operations," said Bush. The layoffs could involve 
100,000 persons, the White House estimates.

Recently, an unstable equilibrium of forces in Congress impeded Bush 
from getting approved $50 billion for his Iraq and Afghanistan wars 
during the next four months.

The funding bill had passed the House of Representatives, but Democrats 
in the Senate included a troop withdrawal schedule in the text with a 
goal of ending US combat operations by the end of 2008. The Republicans 
then impeded the bill's passage, reports Granma newspaper.