[NOW-action-list] Tell Congress-No $87 Billion Blank Check for Bush

Title: Tell Congress-No $87 Billion Blank Check for Bush



Support NOW's Work \|	October 1, 2003	\| Tell a Friend

Action Needed

Background

All NOW Actions

NOW and the Peace Movement

Tell Congress:
No $87 Billion Blank Check for Bush

Action Needed:

Urge your members of Congress to hold the Bush administration accountable on its request for an $87 billion blank check for Iraq. It is time for this administration to dramatically change course and for the Congress to hold Bush accountable for failed Iraq policies and the resulting damage here and abroad. Tell your members of Congress that it is time to change course and that no further funding should be approved without the following crucial provisions:

A guarantee of the welfare and safety of the Iraqi people;
A realistic exit strategy and full transfer of authority from the United States to the United Nations;
The resignation of those responsible for misleading the public and mismanaging Iraq—beginning with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld;
A complete rollback of Bush's unfair and irresponsible tax scheme which, in combination with dramatic military spending, has plunged our country into astounding levels of debt that will be felt for generations to come; and
The withholding of further contracts with Halliburton and any other company with ties to the Bush administration.

Please call or email your Senators and Representative today as votes are expected in both the House and the Senate in the near future.

Background:

George W. Bush announced Sept. 7 that he will ask Congress for an unprecedented $87 billion in funding for Iraq—$66 billion for military operations, and $21 billion for rebuilding. The request for new funding, which follows the $79 billion wartime budget supplement for Iraq and Afghanistan that Bush signed in April, now brings the total of U.S. war-related costs to $166 billion with no end in sight. In fact, it is likely that Bush will make further funding requests in the upcoming months, if we do not change course now.

So far, the Bush administration's war programs have been costly and ineffective. Bush has yet to offer any plan to cover these enormous costs—costs that will be felt today and by future generations. If approved, the $87 billion in additional funding would increase the federal budget deficit for 2004 alone to $562 billion, the Washington Post reports. The White House is now in danger of violating its own limit for budget deficits—five percent of gross domestic product, or $600 billion. This comes at the cost of starving our own much-needed domestic programs. As the administration directs resources towards military spending, jobs continue to be lost and the states are in fiscal crisis. In disregard of these needs here at home, the Bush administration continues to misallocate and mismanage huge amounts of money while refusing to rollback an unfair and irresponsible tax scheme benefitting the wealthiest among us. This burden falls heaviest on poor families, particularly those headed by women, as funding for crucial human needs programs is being slashed.

The Bush administration has mismanaged the situation in Iraq and has misled the public. Currently, the administration is without international support, a realistic exit strategy, or a supportable timeline for sending home the 130,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. While Bush did ask Congress for an additional $87 billion, he did not mention the hunt for Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, nor did he address the unsuccessful effort to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq—the purported reason for our current involvement there.

According to a Sept. 19-21 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, nearly 50% of the public does not believe that the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over. We've had enough. It's time to change course.

Please call or email your members of Congress today and let them know that you're watching to see how they act on this crucial matter.

For more information: