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Boustany- "Our Armed Forces on the Frontline Deserve Better than Political Games"

May 15 2008

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr., (R-Southwest Louisiana), today opposed the liberal Democratic leadership’s emergency supplemental bill, which failed to adequately fund America’s service men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Liberal Washington Democrats continue to play political games with our armed forces, and it has to stop,” Boustany said. “This bill failed to fund our troops, it micromanages General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker after they outlined their plan just one month ago, and it hikes taxes to expand Democrats’ pet projects. I am committed to ensuring our troops have the funding they need, and I will work to make this bill better before it becomes law.”

The American people do not send their hard-earned tax dollars to Washington to have them passed along to our troops on an installment plan. This week, Republicans on the Appropriations Committee introduced a clean troop funding bill (H.R. 6026) that provides the $178 billion in funds requested for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan – and not a penny or extraneous provision more. The liberal Democratic bill fails to provide roughly $3.4 billion of the funds requested for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of this fiscal year.

In addition, the Democratic bill includes a provision requiring the President to begin a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Iraq within 30 days, with a goal of complete withdrawal by the end of 2009. By holding yet another vote on an arbitrary timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, the Democrats are putting the demands of MoveOn.org and partisan concerns over the needs of our troops.

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