October 19, 2003

Iraqi rebuilding funds

Sure, let's make half of it a grant and half of it a loan. That way, everyone who accused us of spending blood for oil can turn around and say "I told you so!"
Oddly, it's the people who made that accusation that are most in favor of the amendment.

On second thought, maybe it isn't so odd.

More amendments to the Iraq Reconstruction bill

Just to remind us that it's business as usual in Washington, here's a list of all amendments to the Iraq Reconstruction bill from the US Senate. Highlights include:

  • Sen Byrd wants to strike $15 billion from the funds earmarked for reconstruction, fully 75% of the total. S. AMDT 1794 Remember the saying "Penny wise, pound foolish?" Of course, Byrd was probably around when Franklin coined it.
  • Sen. Leahy wants to put the Coalition Provisional Authority under the direct leadership of the Secretary of State. S. AMDT 1803 That's a step backwards, sir.
  • Sen. Stabenow wants to take money from the Iraq reconstruction funds to build schools, create 95,000 jobs, and fund transportation and health care here in the States. S. AMDT 1823 Hey Deb, the bill is for Iraqi reconstruction. They're the ones that just got free from 3 decades of oppression. Not us.
  • Sen Warner wants some funds from this bill to fund cleanup from Hurricane Isabel. S AMDT 1867 Do all Senators suffer from problems with geography? The bill is to rebuild Iraq, not Virginia!
  • Sen. Lautenburg wants to limit payments to any compnay paying deferred salaries to certain gov't officials. S. AMDT 1868 Sen. must be an abbreviation for senile. Yeah, Frank, let's just fire Halliburton and all its subsidiaries while we bid out new contracts for the reconstruction. The Iraqis won't mind going without food, water, power, etc for 6 months so you can grandstand.
  • Sen. Shumer wants to fund a special investigator for the whole Plame/Wilson affair. S. AMDT 1872 Pay attention Charlie, we're talking about Iraq. We'll get to the small stuff a little later.
  • Sen. Durbin wants to fund AIDS research. S AMDT 1873 Rickie, you and Chuckie both need a time out! If you can't stay focused on the tasks at hand, you're going to fall behind!

Posted by Rich at October 19, 2003 4:35 PM | TrackBack