Congress is debating a $178 billion supplemental-spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

National Review, June 2, 2008

Congress is debating a $178 billion supplemental-spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill is long overdue, and President Bush has warned that unless Congress acts in a timely fashion, it will mean furloughs for as many as 200,000 civilian defense workers. Congressional Democrats are trying to hijack the bill.

Sen. Jim Webb proposes to expand education benefits to veterans, which is a fine idea, except that Webb wants to provide the full range of benefits after only three years, thus eliminating a valuable incentive from the effort to retain troops. Conservative lawmakers should also block attempts by Democrats (and some Republicans) to attach unrelated domestic spending to a bill intended to fund military operations overseas. As long as our troops are in harm's way, the focus should stay on making sure our military commanders have everything they need to prosecute the war successfully.