Franken favors trimming Iraq rebuilding aid by $7.1 billion

Last update: August 11, 2008 - 10:04 PM

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In the wake of reports that the Iraq government is projecting a budget surplus this year of at least $50 billion, DFL Senate candidate Al Franken said Monday that the U.S. government should withdraw $7.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds and use the money instead to fix crumbling American infrastructure.

Franken said that trimming U.S. funds for Iraq reconstruction by $1.1 billion, as Sen. Norm Coleman proposed doing last week, isn't nearly enough. Franken is seeking Coleman's seat.

"I say we send not one more cent of taxpayer money to fund the Iraq reconstruction while the Maliki government is running surpluses and failing to pay for the rebuilding of the country," Franken said at a State Capitol news conference.

He added that Congress also should eliminate reconstruction funds in pending bills and set a "responsible timeline" for withdrawing U.S. troops.

Franken also charged that Coleman failed to hold hearings to oversee where reconstruction money was going while he was chairman of the Senate permanent investigative subcommittee from 2003 to 2007.

The Coleman campaign responded that neither Coleman nor the subcommittee's ranking member and subsequent chairman, Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, have held such hearings because other committees are better equipped to do so.

"What we need a little bit more of [from Franken] ... is honesty, straightforward and direct talk about issues," Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said.

KEVIN DUCHSCHERE

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