Pelosi says 'So what?' to Bush veto threat on Iraq funding

Pelosi says 'So what?' to Bush veto threat on Iraq funding

After a White House official issued a strongly-worded veto threat against the Iraq War funding proposal rolled out by Democratic leaders this morning, the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congressional Members should not be particularly concerned with what bills President George W. Bush will and won't sign.

"I say to my colleagues never confine your best work, your hopes, your dreams, the aspiration of the American people to what will be signed by George W. Bush because that is too limiting a factor," the Speaker said this morning in a press conference.

Pelosi's office pointed back to the remark, which was made hypothetically this morning, when RAW STORY inquired about her reaction to the actual veto threat issued this afternoon. She had also said that the deal was just a first step, and that it still must be passed out of Appropriations Committee and approved on both the House and Senate floors before being sent to the President's desk.

White House Counselor Dan Bartlett, while en route to Brazil with the President, dismissed the ballyhooed deal that the the Speaker unveiled today with Reps. David Obey (D-WI), Ike Skelton (D-MO), and John Murtha (D-PA).

"Obviously, the administration would vehemently oppose and ultimately veto any legislation that looks like what was described today," he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), who sits on the Appropriations Committee, reacted more directly to the President's veto threat.

"The President should dust off his pen because the Supplemental is coming and we’re going to use it to hold the Iraqi government accountable," Moran told RAW STORY. "If they can’t meet the benchmarks in the bill by July, our troops will come home."

The president has only vetoed one bill in the course of his presidency, now in its seventh year. In July 2006, he rejected the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005.

With help from wire services.