White House Officials to Rework Iraq Funding Plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bush administration officials said they would rework a plan for a $25 billion reserve fund for Iraq operations after Republican and Democratic senators on Thursday slammed it as an effort to get "a blank check" without congressional oversight.

In a frequently testy Senate Armed Services hearing, even reliable Republican allies balked at the White House's unusual proposal to let it allocate the money to help finance Iraq and Afghanistan operations for coming months without the approval of Congress.

"Our forefathers would have scorned such arrogance as has been demonstrated by this request," said Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat. "I'm going to support this $25 billion but we're going to put limitations on it."

Pressed by Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House deputy budget director Joel Kaplan agreed to try to rework the plan to give Congress more oversight.

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=863986&tw=wn_wire_story

If it was going to be a blank check for Bush I think Kerry would vote against it. Then they have another ad showing Kerry voting against the needs of the troops.

One last little project to help cook the books for your friends.

:evilgrin:

It's about time!

Will include the 7 Million per day in oil the Iraqi's earn?