Pelosi hints at denying funds to deploy more troops to Iraq

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said newly empowered Democrats will not give President Bush a blank check to wage war in Iraq, hinting they could deny funding if he seeks additional troops.\n"If the president chooses to escalate the war, in his budget request, we want to see a distinction between what is there to support the troops who are there now," she said in an interview broadcast Sunday.\n"The American people and the Congress support those troops. We will not abandon them. But if the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it and this is new for him because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no conditions," said Pelosi, D-Calif.\nHer comments on CBS's "Face the Nation" came as Bush worked to finish his new war plan that could send as many as 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq and provide more money for jobs and reconstruction programs.\nBush is expected to announce his plan as early as Wednesday.\nWhen asked about the possibility of cutting off funds, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer declined to say whether Democrats might do so, saying only that the current strategy clearly is "not working."\n"I don't want to anticipate that," Hoyer, D-Md., said on "Fox News Sunday."\nSome military officials, familiar with the discussions, said Bush at first could send 8,000 to 10,000 new troops to Baghdad and possibly Anbar Province, while leaving himself the option of adding more later if security does not improve.\n"Based on the advice of current and former military leaders, we believe this tactic would be a serious mistake," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Saturday in the Democratic radio address.\nPelosi and Reid told Bush in a letter last week that Democrats oppose additional U.S. forces in Iraq and want him to begin withdrawing the American troops who are already there in four to six months.\nPointing to the November elections that ousted Republicans from control of the House and Senate, Pelosi said on CBS the public is "watching to see what difference this election can make. The president ought to heed their message. ... We should not be obliged to an open-ended war."\nShe said Democrats are not interesting in cutting off money for troops already in Iraq -- "We won't do that" -- and that her party favors increasing the overall size of the Army by 30,000 and Marines by 20,000 "to make sure we are able to protect the American people."\n"That's different, though, than adding troops to Iraq," Pelosi said.\nThe speaker stopped short of stating categorically that Democrats would block money for additional troops in Iraq. But she did say, "The burden is on the president to justify any additional resources. ... The president's going to have to engage with Congress in the justification for any additional troops."\n--Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.