As Congress considers President Bush's request for another $100 billion for Iraq, 68% of Americans want Bush to bring U.S. troops home within 6 months, according to a Democrats.com telephone poll of 628 adults conducted from May 1-4, 2008 by ICR.

The poll marks a 14% increase from 54% in September. Most of that increase (11%) came from those who want Congress to require Bush to use existing funds to bring our troops safely home, bringing that total to 51% - a majority of Americans.

Broken down by party, 85% of Democrats want our troops home within 6 months, as do 78% of Independents. By contrast, only 32% of Republicans want our troops home soon.

Democratic support grew by 15% since September, and Independent support grew by 20%. By contrast, Republican support was unchanged.

The new poll differs slightly from last September's poll because Congressional Democrats have proposed giving President Bush $70 billion more than he requested in order to avoid another unpopular funding vote before the November election.

The new poll asked: "President Bush wants Congress to spend 100 billion dollars more in tax dollars this year to keep U.S. troops in Iraq."
(see poll details here.)

Despite overwhelming public support for using the "power of the purse" to bring our troops home, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly refused to even consider this approach. As a result, the approval rating of Congress has fallen to historic lows.

Since last September's poll, economic growth has slowed to a near-recession and a record 73% of Americans believe America is on the "wrong track." A record 68% of Americans oppose the war in Iraq and growing number of Americans believe the recession in the U.S. is closely tied to the $12 billion monthly cost of the occupation of Iraq. Since February, anti-war groups have emphasized the financial cost of the occupation.

On January 16, 42 House Democrats voted against Bush's previous request for $70 billion. A total of 92 House Democrats have told Bush they would only fund the safe deployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of his term in January 2009.

"More than two-thirds of Americans want to bring our troops safely home within 6 months," said Bob Fertik of Democrats.com. "It's long past time for George Bush and the Democratic Congress to listen to the American people. The 500,000 members of Democrats.com will continue to urge Congress to oppose any more funds for Iraq," Fertik added.

80,000 Americans have emailed their Senators and Representatives to oppose any more funds for Iraq: http://www.democrats.com/iraq-petition