Dems try to load up ‘money train’ war funding bill

(Via USATODAY.com.)

Democrats in Congress are seeking to attach tens of billions of dollars in domestic spending to President Bush’s latest $108 billion war funding request, setting up a political battle that could put U.S. troops and their families in the middle.

Plans to add money for such things as transportation, unemployment insurance, aid to states, food stamps, public housing and veterans’ benefits has prompted veto threats from the White House.

Bush’s budget director, Jim Nussle, said Tuesday that only a month remains before the Pentagon would threaten to furlough thousands of civilian employees. The Pentagon made a similar threat in December before Congress appropriated $70 billion for the wars.

“They’re trying to figure out how to put everything onto this,” Nussle said in an interview. In testimony prepared for the Senate Appropriations Committee today, he calls the war funding measure “the last big money train out of town before the election.” That could be the case if Congress doesn’t pass any of its regular appropriations bills on time.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have not decided which items to seek as part of the war funding request and are hoping to reach agreement with the White House on some of it. Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the items being reviewed would be “quick ways to stimulate the economy.”

Full story here.