Four United States senators — Michael Bennet of Colorado, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois — said on Thursday that they will oppose any short-term spending bill that does not restrict President Donald Trump's ability to continue the war in Iran, turning the December 11 deadline to keep the government funded into a fight over the war itself.
The President's case for the Iran action is that it was a decision he had to make. In his sit-down interview with Stephen A. Smith at the White House, released the same day, Trump put it this way: "I feel I had to do what I did in Iran. I think historically that's going to be a great decision, I hope. But short term, I guess it is tougher politically. I knew that." His administration asked Congress this summer for tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for the war — money the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray, says Democrats do not intend to approve.
In their joint statement, the four senators said the conflict has driven up the cost of gas, groceries and fertilizer for American families, and that more than 20 American service members have been killed and hundreds more wounded. "When we vote on appropriations, we intend to fund the government and stop funds for this war," they wrote. Van Hollen has stated his own position in the bluntest terms: he will not support a single dime for the war, which he says is endangering American troops and driving up prices at home.
The leverage is real. Government funding runs out on December 11 — Congress passed a short-term patch on September 1 that pushed the fight past the midterm elections — and a stopgap bill needs 60 votes to pass the Senate, which means it cannot pass without Democratic support. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia says he also will not back a short-term bill unless it blocks money for the war, and he is drafting a provision to do exactly that. Duckworth, for her part, has also committed to voting against the annual defense authorization bill unless her amendment to end the war is included.
But the four do not yet speak for their whole party. Democratic leaders have not decided whether to risk a shutdown over the war. Murray, who runs the Appropriations Committee for the Democrats, says the party is still discussing its options and how long a stopgap should run; she has backed a short-term bill that funds the government into the new year without committing herself on whether it must carry restrictions on the war. Pentagon estimates put the cost of the war at $47.1 billion as of mid-October.
For ordinary Americans, the two sides are making two different promises. The senators say cutting off the money is how the war ends — and with it, they argue, the higher gas and grocery prices and the toll on American troops that they lay at the war's door. The President's argument is that the harder decision, taken now, is what protects the country over the long term, and he accepts the political cost of it. What is certain is that if neither side gives way, the same December 11 deadline will decide both the war's funding and whether parts of the federal government shut down — with federal workers' pay and the services families rely on caught in between.
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