Tester wants Bush to address Iraqi war multi-billion budget

Elizabeth Doney Havre Daily News [email protected]

In a media teleconference call to Montana newspaper reporters last week, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Big Sandy, stood firm with the nation's democratic party opposition against President George W. Bush and his veto of their proposed budget that would have put a cap on war spending and called for troop removal by October. “President Bush vetoed the budget and some of the things included in that budget were the farm disaster bill and veteran health care funding. This veto hurts Montana because of those critical areas,” Tester said. “The president doesn't like the language of the budget, but I thought it was common sense. I just think the president wants to continue with a blank check.” Tester went on to state that the budget conflict is an issue that absolutely has to be addressed to help U.S. troops. “They are doing everything that we asked, from ousting Huessein to assisting with the democratic elections in Iraq,” Tester said. “Time is of the essence in this cival war they're shooting at our troops from all sides. We are still losing an average of three men a day in Iraq and that adds up.” According to Tester, the congressional budget will have to be readdressed by the house and senate and hopefully be resolved from there. “Yesterday, I read that some republicans in the house and senate would be amendable to benchmarks,” he said. “Benchmarks could serve a real purpose. We have to keep these in the budget and come up with a language that the president will sign that will appease both sides not only for the funding negotiations but for our troops.” “It's in the best interest of the U.S. to train the Iraqi's to defend themselves. They have to take up their end of the bill There's really no end in sight. Things have been this way since World War II and we are approaching 3,500 lives. Of course there will be some turmoil when we pull out, just like there was when we pulled out of Vietnam. But we are spending $2 billion a week and putting a lot of people's lives on the line. It just doesn't seem to work. We've got some real problems until the Iraqi's start taking care of themselves. I think it's time to get serious about removal issues.”

For more information about the democratic spending bill, visit Jon Tester's Web site http://tester.senate.gov/News/pressMaster.cf m or read the latest article on war spending at the Wall Street Journal online.wsj.com/article/SB117849829112493986.h tml?mod=googlenews_wsj.