Reps. Musgrave, Tancredo and Beauprez have given Bush a Blank Check

Denver - In a White House news conference yesterday, President Bush declared: “we have a plan for victory” in Iraq. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests exactly the opposite. President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq without a plan to win the peace, and the Republican Congress never pressed him to create one.

The Republican Congress has given George Bush a blank check on Iraq, providing no oversight, asking no questions, and performing no investigation into how taxpayer money is spent. A new government report shows just how grave the consequences of this inaction have been. The report, according to the New York Times, shows that lack of oversight by the Republican Congress have cost Americans billions of dollars in "idle" time. The report confirms that the Bush Administration ordered "contractors and their equipment to Iraq and then let them sit idle for months at a time." As a result of the Administration's lack of planning "overhead costs have consumed more than half the budget of some reconstruction projects in Iraq," meaning that “in some cases, more money was being spent on housing and feeding employees, completing paperwork and providing security than on actual construction" and "leaving far less money than expected to provide the oil, water and electricity needed to improve the lives of Iraqis." [New York Times, 10/25/06]

Even respected military generals have called for more oversight from Congress. Retired major generals John Batiste and Paul Eaton have both called for a Democratic majority in Congress. In an interview in Salon magazine, General Batiste said: "The best thing that can happen right now is for one or both of our houses to go Democratic so we can have some oversight." Batiste, who described himself as a "lifelong Republican," said that now "it is time for a change."

In a separate interview with Salon, Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004, stated: "The way out that I see is to hand the House and the Senate to the Democrats and get this thing turned around. ... Most of us see two more years of the same if the Republicans stay in power." Eaton is also a self described Republican.

“The separation of powers have broken down in this country,” said State Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak. “The Republican Congress has failed to perform its constitutional duty to oversee the Executive Branch. Consequently, the Bush Administration has run amok worldwide, wasting taxpayer money right and left.

“Marilyn Musgrave, Tom Tancredo and Bob Beauprez are complicit in this failure. Each one has given George Bush a blank check to pursue his policies without oversight. Now, the American people are paying the price. Democrats will provide the oversight the Constitution demands.”