❗Let's close the gap: We still need your help to raise $40,000 by April 1. Donate now

More troops headed for Iraq?

John Dimsdale Jan 10, 2007
HTML EMBED:
COPY

More troops headed for Iraq?

John Dimsdale Jan 10, 2007
HTML EMBED:
COPY

TEXT OF STORY

SCOTT JAGOW: Tonight President Bush speaks to the country about Iraq. He’s expected to ask for about 20,000 more troops over there. Bush has already been talking to Congress about this and as you can imagine, there’s quite a bit of resistance. More now from John Dimsdale.


JOHN DIMSDALE: Massachusetts Democrat, Senator Edward Kennedy, wants to withhold federal funds for sending additional troops to Iraq.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: We are exercising the power of the purse when we’re saying the president ought to come back to the Congress and justify an increase in the escalation of the war.

President Bush will be asking Congress for additional money for the Iraq war in a few weeks… and Senator Kennedy was asked why he doesn’t just wait until then.

KENNEDY: The horse will be out of barn by the time we get there. We’re gonna get the appropriation request probably end of January, early February. It’ll take six to eight weeks for Congress to act. By that time the troops will already be there.

Democrats, like Republicans, are split over whether Congress has the constitutional power to block the President’s move. But Congress has withheld money before for troops in Vietnam and Lebanon.

In Washington, I’m John Dimsdale for Marketplace.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.