WASHINGTON – Vocal Republicans pointed out Tuesday they were missing their holiday week to address the debt crisis and not the fighting in Libya.
In response, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., bowing to GOP pressure to make the week about budget issues, withdrew a cloture motion that would have brought a War Powers resolution to the floor.
The resolution, sponsored by U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and backed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., authorizes President Barack Obama to use limited military force for a up to a year as part of NATO-led operations in Libya.
“Let us be clear,” Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said. “We are deliberately trying to overthrow the government of Libya with military force.”
Originally, the resolution stated that it doesn’t “support deploying, establishing or maintaining the presence of units and members of the United States armed forces on the ground in Libya unless the purpose of the presence is limited to the immediate personal defense of United States government officials.”
Lugar and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., added an amendment in committee specifically prohibiting the introduction of ground troops or contractors to the Libyan theater.
Tuesday’s vote on the Kerry resolution was to be the first taken up during what is traditionally a Senate holiday. Reid canceled the Senate’s Fourth of July break to focus on the budget and the debt limit.
Republican senators took their turn talking to an empty chamber Tuesday about the need to focus on the debt ceiling and the budget rather than what Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., called “something that’s totally irrelevant.”
“We are here over the debt ceiling,” Corker said. “If the resolution that we’re debating … were to pass it would not change the situation in Libya one iota.”
The vote, he said, would accomplish nothing “other than senators feeling good about doing something.”
Reid agreed that the focus should be on the debt problem, saying: “Notwithstanding the broad support for the Libya resolution, the most important thing to focus on this week is the budget. Meetings are in process now and will continue on the debt limit and the larger debt matter throughout the Capitol.”
Corker and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., indicated that they and other Republican senators would vote against the motion to proceed in protest of what they saw as a distraction and a lack of progress on saw as the number one issue facing the country.
Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, also spoke about the need to focus on the debt ceiling and the budget.
“We need to focus on that and that alone this week,” Hutchison said. “Let’s have that debate this week.”
The vote to move the Libya resolution to the floor has been postponed indefinitely.