Pelosi Tells Bush to Justify Any Iraq Escalation

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was on CBS’s Face The Nation Sunday morning and she has made remarkably clear that Democrats will likely withhold any funding for the escalation of the Iraq war that George W. Bush is expected to announce in the coming week. Speaking forcefully, but carefully, Pelosi laid out a Democratic agenda that defines her parameters as in line with what the vast majority of Americans believe about what she called "a war without end."

"If the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it," said Pelosi, speaking to host Bob Schieffer. "And this is new for him because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no conditions. And we’ve gone into this situation, which is a war without end, which the American people have rejected."

What is interesting is that this is the first clear hint from leadership that the funding blackmail is on the table, something previously proposed by Murtha.

Hide your wallets.

House rules change clears way for tax increases

One of the first key procedural votes in the Democrat-controlled House last week established legislative rules that Republicans say will make it easier to raise taxes by a simple majority vote.

The straight party-line vote received little attention Thursday as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, was elected speaker of the House. But Republican leaders and conservative tax-cut advocates said it opened up a huge loophole in a Republican-imposed rule drawn from the Republicans’ 1994 Contract with America, which requires a supermajority, or three-fifths vote, to raise taxes.

Democrats unanimously voted down a motion offered by Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio that would have prevented them from waiving the rule, a move that tax-cutters said signaled the Democrats’ intention to raise taxes between now and the 2008 elections.

The observent will note that they have not done so yet.  After watching the Washington State Democrats bypass every spending restriction including peoples initiatives, and pass a deluge of taxes, I won’t hold my breath.

David Zucker said it first.  Satire or prophesy?