I'm a little confused. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has list of 147 Republican Congresspersons who have pledged to vote to sustain any presidential veto of FY 2008 spending bills.

Gentle Reminder that Congress Plays a Role in Budget-Making In a press release yesterday, House Appropriations chair Rep. David Obey (D-WI) set forth opening arguments in his usual direct terms regarding the unfolding Executive-Legislative FY 2008 budget debate. Obey's comments come against the backdrop of the president's repeated threats to veto any spending bill larger than what the White House requested.

From the Hill: "No American troop will go without … just so the most liberal activists in the country can be quieted," said a senior House Democratic aide. "If it means Democrats in Congress get tea bags and hate mail, so be it — we will not be irresponsible with the lives of our troops." I have to call a spade a spade here- that reasoning is a total cop-out and disingenous. This CRS report- distributed to every single congressional office, and presumably read by the ever-so-responsible aide who's quoted here, shows that further delays would not have put soldiers in danger. CRS found that the Army had many options to stretch their funding well into the summer, including invoking the Feed and Forage act, which has been used in the past to finance operations while Congress worked on supplemental appropriations bills. I've pasted below the fold the section of the report that's most important, and added some bolding.

As regards the war funding bill, Democrats are fatigued. So here's a word of non-partisan strategic advice- take a breather. Relax. Just do nothing for while and see if events on the ground change the politics back home. Anyway, it now seems that Democrats just don't want this fight. From CQ: "The problem is that we have to provide money for the troops, and if we don't, the Democrats will be blamed," added Rep. James P. Moran, D-Va., a war opponent. "Bush has the bully pulpit, so he will define who is responsible."