The so named “U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007” disgracefully passed the House of Representatives yesterday with the help of two Republicans who apparently condone legislative bribery and playing with the lives of our soldiers on the ground. Republican Congressmen, Wayne Gilchrest (MD-1) and Walter Jones (NC-3) voted along with almost all of the Democrats in successfully passing this bill.

There are a number of things about this bill that bother me:

First of all, the obvious timetable provision in this bill just goes beyond even a sliver of common sense. Do I even have to explain this? If it was scripted it would go like this:

Nancy Pelosi: “America, we will have every last American soldier out of Iraq by June 1st”

Osama bin Laden: “Terrorists, lay low until June 2nd.”

Hello??????? Do we actually have members of our government that don’t understand this? I really believe the answer is no. I think they all are fully aware what the repercussions would be which is why at this point I am convinced that the Democrat Party is a party invested in America’s defeat, not in her success.

Secondly, Pelosi knew that she didn’t have the votes to pass this bill on the merits of the WOT alone, so the Democrats stuffed this bill with an outrageous amount of pork that didn’t even have an ounce to do with our military. It was a bribe to bring on some of the Blue Dog Democrats, who have been resisting the pullout timetable, and apparently a couple of Republicans. It evidently succeeded:

• $25 million for spinach farmers
• $283 million for milk income loss
• $74 million for peanut storage
• $60 million to the National Marine Fisheries Service

This, coming from the party that made criticism of out of control pork spending a platform in their 2006 campaign.

Finally, and most detestable of all, is the fact that this is all a political show and the lives of our soldiers in combat are tools for these people to grandstand before their constituents. Col. David Hunt said it pretty well on Fox News last night that both parties are failing in their obligation to our soldiers. The Republicans let the war run four years unchecked and the Democrats are playing political theater. President Bush was also candid about the impact of this bill:

“A narrow majority in the House of Representatives abdicated its responsibility by passing a war spending bill that has no chance of becoming law and brings us no closer to getting the troops the resoures they need to do their job,” the president said.

Forbes