War funding plans stall in the Senate

Competing war funding proposals fell far short of the required 60 votes in the Senate Friday as Republicans did not budge from their position that the money should come with no strings attached while Democrats insisted that war appropriations would have to be accompanied by some measure of accountability.

{mosads}“We cannot continue to condition funding for the troops on the Democratic proposals on withdrawal dates that all of our military leaders have said are not only unrealistic, but would do harm to the ability of our troops to carry out their mission,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) following the votes. A Republican proposal that would have funded the war with no strings attached went down 45-53.

Minutes later, the Democratic plan went down 53-47. While a majority of senators supported putting some conditions on the Iraq war funds, Republicans were successful in closing ranks enough to prevent the legislation from getting the 60 votes it needed to move forward.

“The president and his enablers in Congress are so afraid of being held accountable for this disastrous war policy that they would rather leave our men and women in uniform empty-handed than work with us to change course in Iraq,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said following the vote.