[Peace-discuss] Obama admin pays killers, not teachers

[C. G. Estabrook]

	CQ POLITICS NEWS
	July 19, 2010 – 1:51 p.m.
	Spending Bill Will Not Have Money To Prevent Teacher Layoffs, Aide Says

House Democratic leaders will accept the Senate’s plan to pass a stripped-down
supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while seeking
another vehicle for money to prevent the layoffs of some 140,000 teachers, a
well-informed House aide said Monday.

The decision reflects the reality that Democrats lack the votes in the Senate to
attach billions of dollars in help for states to keep teachers on the payroll
this fall.

The teacher money is a top priority for Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., and
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey , D-Wis.

The aide said Pelosi and Obey are seeking other ways to quickly get the funds
appropriated before Congress leaves on its monthlong August recess.

One bill that is being studied as a vehicle is the leftover package of tax break
extensions that are not included in the Senate’s extension of unemployment
benefits. The Senate is scheduled to pass the unemployment bill on Tuesday and
the House is expected to take it up on Wednesday.

In the Senate, Republicans and some Democrats have objected to the added
domestic spending being added to a war supplemental, even if it is offset by
other cuts. The budget deficit can’t take another hit, those senators say.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md., said on July 15 that he recognized
the problem the Senate was having with the money for teachers, and didn’t want
the House to leave for its recess at the end of this month without sending
President Obama the money for the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hoyer had said the same thing before the Memorial Day and July Fourth breaks,
but the snarl over the supplemental’s scope and cost was not resolved.

The current funding for the wars is expected to last through Aug. 7.

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