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Bush Invites Democrats to Talks, Not Negotiations

Posted on: Wednesday, 11 April 2007, 06:00 CDT

By David Jackson

WASHINGTON -- President Bush invited Democrats to the White House on Tuesday to discuss the standoff over Iraq war funding, though he made clear he would not negotiate any schedule for pulling U.S. troops out of the country.

"We can discuss the way forward on a bill that is a clean bill, a bill that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal," Bush told members of American Legion Post 177 in Fairfax, Va.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would not meet with Bush unless he is willing to compromise.

"The president is inviting us down to the White House with preconditions," Reid said. "That's not the way things should operate."

The Senate and House have passed emergency spending bills that would provide more than $120 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, anti-terrorism programs and disaster relief.

The two bills include different timetables for the withdrawal and redeployment of U.S. forces in Iraq by next year. A conference committee must resolve the differences before a final bill can go to the White House. The House returns from Easter recess next week. The Senate is back this week.

Bush threatened to veto any bill with a timetable, and he said Democrats do not have the two-thirds majority to override a veto.

Bush said the dispute could delay necessary funding for troops in the field. He said the Pentagon will soon notify Congress of plans to transfer $1.6 billion from other programs to fund operations in Iraq.

A report last month from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service said that by shifting funds around, the Army could finance the war and its other responsibilities through much of July without additional money.

Bush claimed progress in the security plan he announced in January, an increase of up to 28,000 U.S troops that has drawn opposition even from some Republicans, such as Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon.

"If we retreat ... the enemy would follow us here," Bush said. "And that's why it's important we succeed in Iraq."

White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said Bush does not need to negotiate because he has made it clear he will only sign a funding bill with no restrictions.

One reason to meet, she said, is to find out where Democrats stand. Perino noted that Reid has talked of cutting off all funding for the war in the event of a veto, while Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has said that will not happen.

"It's very confusing," Perino said. "How are you supposed to negotiate with that?"

Reid said Bush no longer has the "rubber-stamp" Republican Congress of years past, and he must now deal with a truly equal branch of government. He said voters handed control of Congress to the Democrats last year because of opposition to the war.

"He's got to listen to us, because we are speaking for the American people," Reid said. "He isn't."

Reid said the Senate has proposed a measured plan that includes stepped-up training of Iraqi forces, with a goal of having U.S. troops start coming home by April1, 2008.

The Senate Democratic leader noted that the U.S. death toll in Iraq is approaching 3,300, and the war has been condemned by figures such as Pope Benedict XVI. "It's not just the Democratic Congress that is crying out for a change in direction," Reid said. "It's the pope." (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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