 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Meanwhile, at home©Associated PressDecember 7, 2001 WASHINGTON -- Democrats accused President Bush on Thursday of neglecting the home front as the Senate debated a $35-billion antiterrorism plan that the White House and Republicans call too costly. Echoing criticisms they aimed at Bush's father a decade ago, Democrats praised the president's handling of the war overseas, but said he was not adequately trying to enhance Americans' security at home. Bush wants to limit antiterrorism funds in the bill to $20-billion and has promised to veto anything more. He said he will seek more money next year. "Come back home, Mr. President. We need your same vigorous action on homeland security," Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said at a news conference as Senate debate began. "Is there any difference in the spilling of blood, American blood, when it's overseas or at home?" Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the package's chief author, asked on the Senate floor. Like the current president, the elder President Bush's popularity soared during a war, in his case in the Persian Gulf. He lost his 1992 re-election bid after Democrats repeatedly charged him with ignoring the weak economy at home, just as they consider domestic issues to be this president's Achilles heel. The remarks by Mikulski, Byrd and other Democrats underlined the political stakes in the fight over Congress' response to the Sept. 11 attacks. Similarly, Republicans have accused Democrats of needlessly delaying the $318-billion defense bill during war by attaching the antiterror spending to it, knowing a veto was promised. The Democratic plan would boost spending beyond Bush's proposals for local law enforcement, labs at federal and local facilities, the Postal Service, airport security and aid to New York and other states where terrorists struck. Republicans said they had the 41 votes they would need to derail the Democratic plan, using Senate rules against bills that bust through budget caps.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
