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Congress approves war budget

The US Congress sent President George W. Bush a multibillion dollar Iraq war budget on Thursday, after bowing to his demands to rip out troop withdrawal timelines that prompted a previous veto.

After a day of anguished debate reflecting sharp divisions over the unpopular war, the House of Representatives voted 280-142 to fund the war through September, and the Senate concurred by 80 votes to 14.

The votes left many anti-war Democrats with a sour taste but acknowledging they lack the power to thwart Bush's war strategy, despite controlling Congress, and Republicans crowing they had beaten Democratic "surrender dates."

When Bush signs the bill, he will end, temporarily at least, a bitter constitutional tug-of-war between Congress and the White House.

Democrats nevertheless vowed to renew efforts to handcuff him over a war which has dragged on for four years and killed 3,438 US troops and untold thousands of Iraqis.

"The days of blank checks and green lights for his failed policy are over," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who reluctantly backed the bill.

"Senate Democrats will never give in, never, never, never, never," Reid said, paraphrasing former wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and several other top Democrats, were in the unusual position of voting against a deal they had spent days negotiating with the White House.

"This is like a fig leaf, this is a token, this is a small step forward, instead we should have a giant step forward into a new direction," she said.

Top Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both voted no, reflecting anti-war fervor they face on the campaign trail.

"With my vote today, I am saying to the President that enough is enough," Obama said later in a written statement.

Clinton said in a statement: "I believe that the President should begin a phased redeployment of our troops out of Iraq and abandon this escalation."

Another Democratic presidential hope, Senator Joseph Biden grudgingly voted to pass the bill.

The White House expressed satisfaction at the passage of what it described as a roadmap for security in Iraq.

"Congress is to be congratulated for successfully providing our troops with the funding and flexibility they need to protect our country, rather than mandating arbitrary timetables for military operations," said Alex Conant, a White House spokesman.

Several times, raw angst over the war erupted onto the floor of the House.

Republican leader John Boehner dissolved in tears, as he warned the US needed to take the battle to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Democrat John Murtha, could barely contain his fury as he shouted hoarsely across the chamber: "I feel a direction change in the air."

Thursday's votes came hours after Bush forecast a bloody and difficult few months in Iraq.

"We're going to expect heavy fighting in the weeks and months" to come, Bush told a White House news conference.

"We can expect more American and Iraqi casualties," he said.

Democrats had demanded troop withdrawal timetables for months, and included them in a US$124 billion budget vetoed by Bush earlier this month.

But they finally conceded to political logic, unwilling to be seen as unsupportive of troops stuck in battle, knowing that they lack the two-thirds majority needed to block a presidential veto.
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