Debate, But Not Obstruction

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has lately been taking a tough line [1] on ending the Iraq war. That comes in the face of weeks of stubborn Republican opposition to any attempt to bring the troops home or to even curb President Bush’s imperial use of power to keep the war going.

Reid should know that if he stands up to that Republican minority, he’s got public support—not just in a new USA Today-Gallup poll [2] that shows that seven out of 10 voters want U.S. troops out of Iraq by April 2008, but in the thousands who have already signed the Campaign for America’s Future petition [3] encouraging Reid to force a filibuster if he has to rather than back down on the basic demands the American public elected Democrats to meet.

That petition [3], though, needs more signatures as the Senate begins debate today on a 2008 defense authorization bill (H.R. 1585) that will be the Democrats’ opportunity to require the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Signing it today sends a clear message to both political parties: Get the people’s business done. Get us out of Iraq. Reorient our domestic priorities away from cronyism and you’re-on-your-own dispassionate conservatism. And if the Republicans choose to filibuster, let them, and force them to explain why they will not address the public’s demand for change.

The defense authorization bill sets policy for the spending decisions that will come later. This week’s debate comes amid the anticipated release of a report to Congress that the Iraqi government has failed to meet the Bush administration’s own benchmarks for progress toward stability—confirming the public’s sense that the additional “surge” of thousands of additional troops did not accomplish what the Bush administration promised.

Reid is saying [4] to the Republicans who have begun gingerly breaking away from the President, it's time to put your votes where your mouth is: "For those Senate Republicans who are saying the right things on Iraq, they must put their words into action by voting with us to change course and responsibly end this war."

The Iraq war, though, won’t be the only thing on the Senate’s plate this month. There is the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which would provide health insurance coverage to 6 million families. The administration is fighting the Democrats over program reauthorization, claiming that the Democrats are trying to expand the program to families who don’t need it. But the SCHIP changes are designed to help working-class families get access to health care that they otherwise could not afford in a climate where employers are either not offering work-based coverage or the coverage they offer is too expensive.

Also on the agenda is college affordability legislation designed to keep loan costs reasonable for college students and to curb profiteering in the college loan market. Two already-passed bills that would enact provisions of the 9/11 Commission report and ethics changes are also scheduled to go to conference this month, if they can overcome Republican objections to even sitting down and working out differences with parallel legislation passed by the House.

Reid made a little bit of inside-the-Beltway news [5] Monday when he warned that a Congress that criticized the Iraqi parliament for considering a summer recess should be prepared to give up its own summer recess to get the people’s business done. But the more important statement [6] Reid made Monday is that he has set a legislative agenda “that allows for fair debate but not obstruction. In recent weeks, we have seen some of our Republican colleagues filibuster on issues with overwhelming bipartisan support.  That is their right, but it is wrong for America – and we will not let them run out the clock.”

Reid could have added: “And if they do try to run out the clock, it is on them to explain why they are standing in the way of the nation’s most important priorities.”