Congressional Republicans play an annoying rhetorical game. If you oppose tax cuts for millionaires, you’re labeled “anti-growth.” If you vote against a bloated Pentagon budget, you’re “anti-defense.” If you reject a constitutional amendment on flag-burning, you’re “un-American.”
Fortunately, the Dems have learned to play this game, too. If Republicans oppose a new veterans’ benefits package the Dems have crafted, the GOP is “anti-veteran.”
Several vulnerable House Republicans are in danger of being portrayed as anti-veteran as they head into the fall elections, Democratic aides and activists for veterans organizations say.
Democrats are targeting Reps. Bob Beauprez (Colo.), Heather Wilson (N.M.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Anne Northup (Ky.) and Pete Sessions (Texas), declaring that now is a particularly impolitic time for a lawmaker to be perceived as being on “the wrong side” of the veterans debate, given the Iraq war.
At issue are two veterans benefits bills that are stuck in the House Rules Committee. The benefits have drawn criticism from the White House because the administration believes they cost too much, Republican and Democratic supporters of the measures say.
To circumvent the committee, Democratic members have launched discharge petitions to force a House vote on the bills.
I love it when the Dems play hardball.
The Dems have two bills they’re trying to push onto the House floor. The first allows veterans to receive disability and retirement payments at the same time, which existing Defense appropriations prohibits. The second increases benefits for spouses of deceased veterans.
Both need 218 votes to bypass committee and reach the floor through a discharge petition. Right now, sponsors have 202. The extra 16 votes would be easy, except the GOP leadership is standing in the way.
Doug Moore, spokesman for Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.), who launched the discharge petition for H.R. 303, said GOP members had been instructed not to sign the petitions. “We’ve heard that there’s a lot of pressure to stay off, an awful lot,” Moore said.
A Republican aide said it was understood among Republican House members that signing the discharge petitions would upset GOP leaders. “It doesn’t gain members any favors,” the aide said.
John Feehery, spokesman for Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), confirmed that. “Leadership by and large does not like discharge petitions.”
It’s an election year and I wouldn’t be surprised if 16 Republicans, anxious to demonstrate their support for veterans, ignored GOP leaders are joined the Dems on this. We’ll see.
And if history is any guide, the bill will pass and Bush will take credit for the whole thing, saying it was his idea to begin with.