Fingerhut Challenges Voinovich on Iraq War and Its Cost

Note: Eric Fingerhut plans to challenge first term republican Senator George Voinovich for the US Senate in 2004

State Senator Eric Fingerhut, the presumptive Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, is coming out swinging at Republican Senator George Voinovich. In a press conference in Columbus yesterday, Fingerhut challenged Voinovich’s position on how to pay for the Iraq war.

“First and foremost, we must be clear that the success of Operation Iraqi Freedom is now the critical test of American foreign policy around the world,” Fingerhut said in a prepared statement. “Once we acknowledge that fact, the real question is ‘How do we pay for it?’ Do we pay for it today, or do we pass the burden on to our children and grandchildren as part of our rapidly growing national debt?”

Fingerhut also criticized Voinovich for his handling of the funding of the Iraq War and issued a timeline of events surrounding the funding of the war. “The time to line up commitments and international support is before you go to war, not after,” Fingerhut said. “Senator Voinovich did not support those critical efforts.”

Fingerhut said he supported an amendment written by Democratic Senator Joseph Biden that was defeated last week that would have paid for the Iraq war by repealing a portion of the 2003 tax cuts to Americans in the top tax bracket. He pointed out that Voinovich “did not support the amendment. His vote ensured that the $87 billion Iraq costs will be added to the deficit and that each American’s share of the national debt will grow.”

Fingerhut said the issue is not if the U.S. should provide for Iraq, but how it should be done. He said, “Soldiers should not have to pay for this war twice; first by risking their lives on the battlefield in Iraq, and then by paying off the newly incurred national debt for the rest of their lives.”

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