87 Billion-Who remembers the Loan part? Jeff Flake, specifically

[liveoaktx]

I can't find a reference. I could swear during that 2nd bill, when some Republicans wanted to make part of the Iraq reconstruction money a loan, that Bush strongarmed them into changing their vote by either calling them in or visiting them in their offices. Seems like Jeff Flake was one and if I recall correctly, his quote about it was that Bush eyeballed him and stared him into changing his vote. Anyone remember this?

[mikehiggins]

1. Yeah, or something like it.

It just didn't seem sensible to Chimp to load a whole bunch of debt on top of the *NEW* *IMPROVED* *FREE IRAQ* so we should just hand the bucks over gratis.

The other argument was that if we were arguing with other nations to forgive Saddam's debts to them, we would look hypocritical to be laying more debt on them ourselves. Of course, it was very, very important for us to show the rest of the world we cared about their point of view.