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Instead, he favors compromise proposal
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Topeka — U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who is running for president, said on Thursday that he opposes both President Bush’s increase of troops in Iraq, and a Senate committee resolution critical of Bush’s plan.
Instead, Brownback said, he favors a proposal by U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., which has been described in reports as supporting increased troops in the western Anbar province of Iraq, and states that the resolution is not intended to question the president’s authority over U.S. forces.
Brownback said Warner’s approach “is much more to my liking.” He said it also is more in keeping with the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel, which called for a phased withdrawal of troops in Iraq and direct U.S. dialogue with Syria and Iran.
On Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved 12-9 a nonbinding resolution that said Bush’s troop increase was “not in the national interest.”
Brownback said he would not support that resolution, which may be before the full Senate next week. He opposes it because the resolution doesn’t state “what we are for.”
But Brownback also was critical of Bush’s plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq to try to stop increasing violence there.
“We have got to get to a political solution. We cannot impose a military solution,” he said in a teleconference with reporters.
He said Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “should do shutle diplamcy and just park it in the region.”
On other topics, he said Bush’s proposals to increase conservation and the use renewable energy sources was good news for Kansas.
“Kansas can be a big winner and producer,” he said.
On the minimum wage, Brownback said he would only support an increase if it is tied to tax breaks for small businesses.
The House has approved increasing the wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour, but Republicans in the Senate on Wednesday blocked the proposal, saying they want an accompanying tax cut for businesses that rely on low-wage workers.
Brownback said he missed the Senate vote on the issue Wednesday because he was at an event in Boston that was part of his presidential campaign.
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