Yesterday the Senate ensured that our government would be able to operate through September 2008 and that troops in Iraq would get more money, but not to come home. The bill approved 556 billion dollars for the budget and 70 of that is to be spent on Iraq. Democrats were working to get a withdrawal clause attached to the 70 billion but failed and the bill, with no plans to leave Iraq, passed by a vote of 76-17.

The House of Representatives could vote as early as Wednesday to approve the Iraq war funds. When the House passed its version of the budget bill on Monday, it specifically prohibited any new money for Iraq.

But with the Democratic-controlled Congress hurrying to recess for three weeks and Republican Bush promising to veto any budget bill that does not have money for the Iraq war, the House is expected to relent.”We need to pass this spending bill, with troop funds, without any strings and without any further delay,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said.The Senate’s assistant Democratic leader, Dick Durbin of Illinois, who opposes unconditional Iraq funding, said the latest batch of money could keep the wars running through May or June.If Congress does provide the $70 billion, it would boost the overall cost of the two wars to about $670 billion so far. [The Financial Times]

Now seems like the appropriate time to post the trailer to Charles Ferguson’s documentary about the Bush administration’s involvement in Iraq, No End in Sight: