Congress passes Iraq war spending bill

I still don't understand why the situation in Iraq is called a war. Who did the US of A declare war against? If if is Iraq then we need to defeat them and go home.

Back in my day we had real wars with a start and ending date. This is nothing but a total mess.

Our politicians are failing us. Most of America wants us out of Iraq, yet our politicians keeps funding the war. This includes Obama, the man stands for no change.. he just throws the word around to get votes. Its all propaganda. If the people want us out of Iraq, it is the duty of our elected officials to make sure this gets done. Government of the people for the people huh? Complete bullcrap. Wake up America, our country is being sold to special interest groups. The only people who actually no whats going on are people like Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinch, and Mike Gravel (but the news tries to paint them as being crazy.. especially fox news). And for being anti-war the democrats are doing a great job supporting Bush and giving him money to continue the War effort.

this far exceeds a total mess! 850 billion dollars for two wars over the last five years? this is the epitome of government financial waste!!

the American people have been betrayed. we are currently struggling with significant natural disasters (fire, floods, etc.), our children's education is being whittled away, 50 million Americans are uninsured (some of which are dying from curable diseases). i can think of many ways that money could have been spent to first address our own country's issues, not to mention other causes we could make a great contribution to aiding-darfur, poverty, houselessness, starvation.

our governments priorities are their own, without consideration of the bigger picture or the people who their decisions affect. we have allowed them to instill fear in our daily actions, the day we awake and unite as citizens with a common pursuit will be a wonderful turning point for changing the way we are represented by those in leadership roles.

Dems let us down again!! short and simple...America didn't want add ons to bill...they wanted an end.
Get another job

Just add that to the tally of the national debt,every dollar spent since the war began has been borrowed with deficit spending,it is so crazy to justify tax cuts during a war time,if you want to call it a war.

We cant leave because it will cause more fighting, so how are we ever going to know when to leave....

I guess we have no choice now but to stay, because if the troops were to come home and all the private mercs and halliburton and etc..., those people would have a hard time finding work now in the states.

And to hear republicans talk about smaller government,and less spending, what has happened?

One more thing, as someone said above about fear mongering, I for one am sick of politicians bringing up terrorists everytime they need a vote or a bill passed, it is tiring listening to the politicians use the 911 everytime they want something.

Terrorists existed before 911 and will exist after, their is always going to be some radical elements of society, but isn't that why we have a large defence budget and the cia,fbi,dia,dhs,ice,mi5,mi6,ss,nsa, norad, and all the other alphabet agencies i cant think of, isnt that their job, or some of them, to focus on keeping terrorists out of the usa, or killing/capture abroad.

I am sure we would not need half of these agencies if their was not so called terrorists.

We have to remember, the CIA created alqeida and osama was a agent of theirs.

The democrats traded 13weeks unemployment benefits, for all the unemployed whose benefits have run out or are about to run out, that's great and should have passed both houses and the president without question when it was brought to the table in recent months. No --- they let g.w.bush blackmail them again, "I won't sign for the benefits unless I get my $167,000,000.00 dollars to fund my own private war. g.w.bush really needs the money to help clean up the mess and total destruction he created in a place he had no business in, in the first place. Someday when g.w.bush's war spending is all tallied up, I'm sure it will be somewhere over and above 2 trillion dollars in Afghanistan and Iraq ---- and for what? The only terrorist threat I am scared of is g.w.bush, he found his calling, he couldn't have been good at it, no he had to be great at it, by scaring the American people into believing there is a credible threat. The only threat is g.w.bush!!!! Congress could have done something worth while with all those billions of dollars by creating descent paying jobs and then there wouldn't be an unemployment line. Wake up America, impeach bush and have a trial by the international courts to determine g.w.bush's punishment for war crimes. That's what they did to Saddam and bush is not one bit better. The only difference --- g.w.bush's terrorist acts far outreach Saddam's. If nothing else happens to g.w.bush, and Congress is to scared of him for them to act upon what is right, we should at least declare a national holiday when the idiot leaves office!!! The day he goes back to Texas to continue doing whatever it is, he is capable of doing, will be the happiest day of this lower middle class working boy's life. He will be finished making a mockery of the people's White House of America.

I can't believe that the Congress still has not figured out that the weakening of the dollar, via deficit spending, is the cause of ALL of the economic troubles we are facing today. The dollar is weaker, Oil is more expensive and people are losing value and jobs. Is it possible that both the Democrats and the Republicans really don't give a crap about America any longer. It sure looks that way.

I am especially and deeply disappointed that Mr. Obama is not standing up for the Constitution and blocking the FISA Bill and the Telecoms Immunity. His supporters continue to expound on his background as a constitutional attorney. He is becoming just as disappointing.

I think the congress has failed by adding flood money to a bill for the conflict in the middle east.
Again the american public has been duped again by all, especially the democrats who have cried about the conflict in iraq. What a joke they are and they want an inexperienced junior senator as president?

Thank you, I'll pass on that idea.

Merle-283463........."Back in my day we had real wars with a start and ending date".....what war was in your day? I guess the germans and the japanese got the memo's 4 years in advance. That was one of the dumbest comments i have ever heard!
My real question is, if so many are speaking out against "Bush's war" are democrats, then why is it such and overwhelming vote for this spending bill by a majority run congress? None of that makes any sense whatsoever.

At least they didn't try to throw in too many additions on this one. So much lately has been wasted bills because of all the crap they try to add on which the President can only veto. This war has been underfunded from the start, this being one of the cheapest wars in modern history, expenditures for just about everything else in the US unbelievably trumping the cost of an entire war. I lost friends in Iraq during the Clinton administration when I served (during a time when we supposedly weren't at war there, even though we were fighting just like we were), one of them died because of funding. Clinton didn't want to add the title of war, so war funding was not provided, and those deemed less important than others didn't receive proper protective gear. He took a bullet that ended his life, when even a cheap version of our armor would have been able to save his life. Agree with us being there or not, it doesn't actually matter. We've been there now fighting continuously for twenty eight years, the President doesn't even have the authority to pack up all the troops and bring them home in one shot, and Congress has a job to protect those soldiers and sailors who do not have the option of returning home yet. Taking an already unbelievably cheap war for how long we've been there and not providing funds necessary is doing nothing more than turning Americans into fodder, the only option Congress had was to provide funding. Their personal opinions about our actions couldn't be taken into account there, to do so would have undermined the entire purpose of Congress. Their job isn't to throw around opinions, required funding is a major part of their purpose, and they must determine and provide the funding necessary for whatever actions we are taking, regardless of how they feel personally about every action. The opinion side of Congress must be addressed in separate votes and bills, they should never be combined or they lose all organization and ability to adequately function.

Let me in form you of a fact,when we lost the war in vet-nam the dem's were in charge of all the @!$%# that on then,we lost 40,000 troops for nothing. now they want to do that again,bye pulling are troops out of Irag,just like vet-man,witch makes dems a two time loser. I too would like the war done in Irag,it been to long time,the biggeat problum,is the politsion won't
keep they nose out of it,that is why we have been there so long,let the genrals do there job keep politics out of it.If the politsion would let swartzcoff finish it in 92,it would be over,and we would not be there,I for one think the dem's are a bunch of wall flowers,if we lose the war here,then all the troops that have die for nothing,just like nam.

I guess I am supposed to get a warm fuzzy feeling about this war spending bill because they threw in a VA college plan. What about the 4k plus soldiers who will never get a chance to use it? Or the scores of troops with severe brain injuries that can't remember who they are let alone consider going to school. Then their is the unemployment extension that works as well as the economic stimulus checks did to revive the economy. Do they not see that the continued borrowing and spending on this debacle of war is the root of our problem? Also something needs to be done to protect our soldiers against losing their homes while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The idea of foreclosing on a active duty soldiers home while he or she are deployed is sickening. The VA needs to buy these homes from the banks before they go to auction to the highest bidder and refi. them to the veteran at a realistic rate. Our troops deserve at least that.

When is America going to stand up and take a stand like they did in the 60's? That war is evil and it is only lining the pockets of all the black market people, and making the American people poor. We can just pull out, we proved that in Vietnam. Why not give that money to people who have no health insurance, no housing, food, educating,drug treatment, police departments, fire departments, a hundred other billion places that money is need in this country FIRST. We really need to put some new people in Washington. The best thing we could do for everyone is GET OUT and let those people take car of their own problems and get people in Washington who give a dam about this county FIRST!

I think it's about time that we stop complaining and do something. Plain and simple. Your comments are falling on deaf ears. What have any of us done to change things in this country??

One thing we can all do is to not vote for the idiotic politicians who support a war that is not really a war at all. I am still trying to figure out who we declared war against. It can't be Iraq because we already defeated them. Is the war against some country I am not aware of perhaps?