txradioguy
06-24-2011, 05:12 PM
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The House on Friday delivered its strongest rebuke yet to President Obama over his handling of the U.S. military intervention in Libya, refusing to endorse the U.S. operation three months after it began. But the House stopped short of stripping funding for the mission.
In the last of two votes Friday afternoon, the House rejected a Republican-authored bill to strike funding for the Libya operation. The House voted 238-180 against it, with 89 Republicans opposing.
The vote ensured that, at least for the moment, the Obama administration has the money to sustain its involvement in the NATO-led campaign -- though the funding bill was unlikely to pass in the Senate anyway. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said afterward that the funding vote sends an important message about the need to continue the mission.
However, the vote came after the House, in a 295-123 decision, rejected a resolution to "authorize" the mission in Libya -- even a limited operation with no ground troops. One-hundred-and-fifteen Democrats and only eight Republicans voted for the proposal; in a blow to Obama, 70 Democrats voted against it. Though that resolution is non-binding, it represents the most definitive statement the chamber has made about the conflict.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the administration was "disappointed" by that vote. "We think now is not the time to send the kind of mixed message that it sends," he said.
Taken together with proposals in the Senate, the House measures represent an accelerating move in Congress toward formally weighing in on Libya after months on the relative sidelines.
Ahead of the votes, lawmakers delivered impassioned arguments on the House floor, with Democrats and Republicans joining together on both sides of the debate.
"We have no business in Libya," declared Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, reprising an anti-war argument heard often during the height of the Iraq war. "We're there because we don't like Muammar Qaddafi. Well, there are a lot of bad guys in the world, and if we start picking them off one at a time, we will be at war with most of the world."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/24/house-weighs-cutting-off-funds-for-libya-mission/
The House on Friday delivered its strongest rebuke yet to President Obama over his handling of the U.S. military intervention in Libya, refusing to endorse the U.S. operation three months after it began. But the House stopped short of stripping funding for the mission.
In the last of two votes Friday afternoon, the House rejected a Republican-authored bill to strike funding for the Libya operation. The House voted 238-180 against it, with 89 Republicans opposing.
The vote ensured that, at least for the moment, the Obama administration has the money to sustain its involvement in the NATO-led campaign -- though the funding bill was unlikely to pass in the Senate anyway. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said afterward that the funding vote sends an important message about the need to continue the mission.
However, the vote came after the House, in a 295-123 decision, rejected a resolution to "authorize" the mission in Libya -- even a limited operation with no ground troops. One-hundred-and-fifteen Democrats and only eight Republicans voted for the proposal; in a blow to Obama, 70 Democrats voted against it. Though that resolution is non-binding, it represents the most definitive statement the chamber has made about the conflict.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the administration was "disappointed" by that vote. "We think now is not the time to send the kind of mixed message that it sends," he said.
Taken together with proposals in the Senate, the House measures represent an accelerating move in Congress toward formally weighing in on Libya after months on the relative sidelines.
Ahead of the votes, lawmakers delivered impassioned arguments on the House floor, with Democrats and Republicans joining together on both sides of the debate.
"We have no business in Libya," declared Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, reprising an anti-war argument heard often during the height of the Iraq war. "We're there because we don't like Muammar Qaddafi. Well, there are a lot of bad guys in the world, and if we start picking them off one at a time, we will be at war with most of the world."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/24/house-weighs-cutting-off-funds-for-libya-mission/