Democrats’ Irresponsible War Funding “Deal” Puts International Bailouts Ahead of American Troops

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Appropriations Ranking Republican Jerry Lewis today criticized the rumored “deal” struck between Democrat leaders late last night on the Fiscal Year 2009 emergency war funding legislation.

 

The final war funding legislation will allegedly include $5 billion in funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the purpose of bailing out recession-affected foreign governments. In order to pay for this plan, defense and military funding in the legislation would be cut below the level passed by the House.

 

“The reported deal struck between House and Senate Democrat leaders will bail out foreign governments at the expense of our troops and provide international giveaways while our own economy is suffering,” Lewis said. “This irresponsible action puts the President’s questionable IMF policy experiment above our military, our security, and our economic stability here at home.”

 

“Yet again, the Democrat majority is shortchanging our troops and disregarding the plight of American taxpayers. Should this ‘deal’ stand, I will not support this legislation.” Lewis continued, “My colleagues and I would like this to be a bi-partisan piece of legislation that gets adequate funding to our troops quickly. There is still time to accomplish this and I look forward to working out these issues in a proper and open conference committee.”