Democratic members of Congress are facing renewed pressure to oppose any Trump administration funding requests to help bankroll its illegal, open-ended war on Iran after congressional Republicans—along with a handful of pro-war Democrats—voted this week to defeat efforts to end the assault, which is costing US taxpayers roughly $1 billion per day.
In a statement after House Republicans and four Democrats voted down an Iran war powers resolution late Thursday, the ACLU implored Congress “to use its funding authority to block all supplemental funding requests for war funding from the Department of Defense while President Trump is engaging in this unconstitutional war.”
“Without Congress authorizing additional funds, the military will simply run out of money to spend on the war,” the group added.
The Trump administration is reportedly crafting a $50 billion supplemental funding request aimed at financing its war, which has killed more than 1,000 Iranians and counting. Politico reported Thursday that Republicans are “debating whether to attach wildfire aid and $15 billion in tariff relief for farmers” to the supplemental funding measure in an effort to attract Democratic support.
The National Priorities Project (NPP) has noted that $50 billion would be enough to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for a year, restore federal nutrition assistance to millions who are set to lose it due to the Trump-GOP budget law, and expand Medicaid to nearly 2 million people.
“The question isn’t whether the money exists—it’s what we choose to spend it on,” NPP’s Alliyah Lusuegro and Lindsay Koshgarian wrote Thursday. “There’s never been a better time to call your members of Congress. We need to oppose this war before it’s too late.”
“Any member of Congress who rubber stamps another dime for this war of choice should expect to hear from our members.”
Some Senate Democrats—including Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee—have not ruled out voting for a possible supplemental funding bill for the Pentagon, even as the annual US military budget cleared $1 trillion.
“We have to look at what they need,” Reed said earlier this week. “Some of it might be to fill in critical issues and other theaters of war they’ve taken things from.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) told HuffPost that she “would like to understand the goals of the war before I decide how I feel about the funding of the war.”
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, wrote Thursday that “both practically and politically, a vote to fund the war is a vote for the war—a war Americans cannot afford and do not want.”
The progressive advocacy group MoveOn said its members “consider a vote for the supplemental a vote in favor of Donald Trump’s war.”
“Any member of Congress who rubber stamps another dime for this war of choice should expect to hear from our members,” the group added.
To break the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate, Republicans would need at least seven Democrats to cross the aisle.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) expressed emphatic opposition to the floated supplemental funding bill in a social media post on Thursday.
“I’m a hell no on funding for Trump’s illegal, disastrous Iran War,” Murphy wrote.
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