Liberal Democrats, led by heavy-hitting members of Congress from California, are taking on President Obama for the first time, aiming to block funding for his plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
At the same time, voters who supported Obama's candidacy last year are expressing their disappointment online and in street protests against his plan to increase American forces in the war-ravaged nation to nearly 100,000.
"This is not the hope you voted for," read a sign at an anti-war protest in San Francisco this week.
Congressional leaders predict that Obama will have to ask Congress for supplemental war funding in the next six months to pay for his plan, which his administration estimated would cost $30 billion. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs the subcommittee that oversees the Pentagon budget, predicts it could top $40 billion.
That offers an opportunity for opponents, including Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who has sponsored a bill that would cut off funding for the war, to leverage Congress' power to challenge the war.
A week after saying there wasn't Democratic support for an escalation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - typically the president's biggest backer on Capitol Hill - continued Thursday to offer neutral statements on Obama's plan except for saying she opposes a proposed war surtax to fund it.
Liberal Democrats Take Aim at Funding for War
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Liberal Democrats Take Aim at Funding for War
By Joe Garofoli
The San Francisco Chronicle, December 4, 2009
Straight to the Source
