Why won't congress just de-fund the war in Iraq?

They have the votes.

They don't need a veto-proof majority, or 60 votes in the Senate, to simply not include funding for the war in any budget bill. Appropriations must originate in the House, and Pelosi has control. She can just refuse to bring a bill funding the war to a vote, or even to bring one up for consideration.

No, they do not have the support of the public to do that. I'm glad they are not doing so. although their idiotic all-night sessions do nothing but show their treachery to the world at large.

Because they are more disgusting to the American people than the war. Lefties will tell you they can't get the votes. That leads me to believe one of two things.

Either America did not vote hard enough to end the war, or America didn't base it's votes on ending the war when we voted in 2006.

It's soooooooo funny too that congress tried several times to add deadlines to their bills which were vetoed. Bush told them they would be vetoed. So if you know already that it won't matter why not go for the throat and vote to de-fund the war the first time you give it to the president, then try compromising by adding the deadlines. Instead they tried the deadlines thing twice.

Dumb move congress, see why you are the all time worst congress in history?

With a razor-thin majority, a Republican president determined to make NO compromises, and no power of cloture or veto override, Democrats in Congress can do little but hold up any funding legislation. This will not increase their support among voters, and, like any politicians, THAT'S what they care most about.

All they can do at this point is posture and make groaning noises, and they're not even very effective at that. I think at this point it's up to the sensible, experienced Republicans like Dick Lugar and John Warner to not only speak up, but step up and threaten to vote against the President's policies and break up the neocon filibuster. These guys know better, and it's time they DID better

First of all, the Democrats did not win a land slide victory last year and they have visions of Granger, hoping to capitalize on what they won. Sad part is, most Americans have other things on their minds than Iraq. While we do care, imagine what would happen to all those elected officials who withdrew funding, leaving our troops hung out to dry???

You cannot run a war from capitol hill. Viet Nam showed us that, because Congress, in their infinite stupidity, tried to control the military. We lost Viet Nam and South East Asia.

If we lose Iraq, be prepared for long gas lines, triple cost per gallon, and daily reports of suicide bombings right her in America because people it will happen.

Are we full of so much hatred we cant sit and reason using common sense, right from wrong???

I guess not.

The Senate only has a simple majority, which isn't enough to get a lot of controversial things done.

A cloture vote, which I'm sure you've heard a lot about, requires 60 votes. Cloture ends debate on an issue and moves the bill forward. Without it, debate can go on forever.

Are you out of your mind!!? If they cut off funding to our soldiers-our soldiers will die!! That could be your father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, and so on. The reason they do not do it is because they do not want the blame of thousands of our military lives on their conscious! They know this! What needs to be done instead is get rid of the "Rules of Engagement" as established by the UN and turn those boys lose!! Let them win this war!! Those military personnel need our support and our backing! They do not need all of those liberal wussies in the house breaking their backs! This country has lost it's way, and we should not be listening to bunch of idiots in the UN telling us how we should fight our war! We, the United States, were the ones that were attacked and killed by terrorists on our own soil! Not the blow hearts at the UN. The best way to end this war is to allow our military to truly fight this war! We need to stop all of the arguing and back stabbing and focus more on what they need to WIN and then and only then can we get out!!

One man or woman can make a difference. Thanks to Mike Gravel, we don't have the draft anymore. He did it all by himself while he was a Senator.

Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama and all the other Democrats can end the war if they did something about it!

Mike Gravel has a plan to end the Iraq war and it will succeed if a democrat follows it in Congress, but they aren't.

Read about Mike Gravel's plan to end the Iraq war.

Regardless of ones position on the war, to end funding for it, and to leave our troops even more vulnerable than they already are...well, that would be an utterly atrocious

Becasue the Republicans keep blocking the vote on procedural technicalities. They won't even allow it to come to the floor for a vote.

Have you heard of political suicide. These Congressional votes are nothing but show for public votes. It's called appeasement.