Murtha: We Have The Power of The Purse

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Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), appearing just now on Hardball and gifted as always with the ability to speak plainly, couldn’t have been clearer on the controversial issue as to whether Democrats have the ability to restrict the Bush administration’s funding of a troop increase in Iraq.

Yesterday, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) confused the issue by claiming that it was “constitutionally questionable” whether Congress could preempt funding of Bush’s desired “surge.”

“No, that’s not true at all,” Murtha said, adding “we have every ability.”

On the question of why certain Democrats were shirking from this option, he offered, “I’ll tell you, it’s all political.”

Of course, since Murtha is the Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, it’s in his power to push such a limitation on funding. We’ll have more on this later on.

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