McGovern says he’ll fight war funding bill in the HouseBy John J. Monahan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern says he won’t wait until mid-September for a report from President Bush and General David Petraeus, to declare the recent military surge in Iraq a failure. Instead,
he will seek agreement next week to block future war funding until the White House delivers a plan to end the war.(snip)
But anticipating that the president will attempt to postpone an end to the war, Mr. McGovern said he will go to the House floor Tuesday to seek support for an approach that would prevent consideration of $50 billion in new emergency funds for the troops until the White House offers a withdrawal plan.
“This debate needs to begin immediately. When we come back Tuesday, we need to be on the House floor, talking about ending this war,” he said. “The president already said he is going to request an additional $50 billion for this war in Iraq and I am going to oppose that very vigorously.”
(snip)
“This president has been irrational when it comes to the war,” he said. “This president has turned his back on all the facts and all the advice that has come from many of our military leaders in Iraq.” The president has also failed to engage leaders of other countries to come up with a diplomatic solution, he said.
Mr. McGovern added that he expects the president to try to push the war into next year and pass the problem on to the next president. He will try to “peel off” enough Democrat opponents to avoid planning for an end to the war.
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